Your Eyes Only
by wayouttamyleague
Summary: Caskett releases the boys to follow up a very juicy lead. 1 night, 2 fantasies, 4 stalwart best friends, and more porn than strictly necessary. One fantasy-filled evening could change everything, when Kev and Javi are after the same woman. A love letter wrapped in bromance fun & smutty goodness. Hetero rated M for Rysposito fans who agree the boys just don't get enough play.
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings: Castle fandom/Ryan/Espo/OFC/ Rated M explicit/het****. Trying to fill the tragic void of Steamy hetero Romance for these two hotties (even though their slash is wonderful, too). **

**I wrote this for my preferences, mostly Canon, probably first season when the boys are younger and dumber, with just a few 'improvements' thrown in to make the sex and romance more fun. ****I'm a nature person, so the imagery is slightly more earthy, and less urban, than Castle canon.** This is a subplot, barely touches on murder and drama.

**10 Chapters: Already Complete (promise not to leave you hangin).**

******Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, except for the 2.5 who are.**

* * *

Chapter 1:

"Beckett, we can question Ms. Stone and her entourage, if you and Castle need to drive to Jersey?"

Detective Ryan's hands broke into a clammy sweat. He wasn't always the best strategist, but he had been angling for this moment even before her name appeared on the murder board.

"Really Ryan?" Detective Beckett's eyes narrowed in deep thought about the two leads that had dropped on their desks at the same time. Clearly, the guy in Newark impersonating their vic's lawyer was the more essential, and would require a harder hand. Her mind was racing ahead with the urgency of getting to him before he skipped town or destroyed evidence.

"Yeah, we can handle it, no problem," Esposito chimed in, having hopped to his feet a little too eagerly.

Castle let his gaze wander upwards, as if his memories were taped to the ceiling.

"Ah, the elusive and captivating Cassandra Stone._ I _tried to interview her once. Delayed my book tour for a week in favor of a mountain yoga retreat, just because my agent promised she was on the program. I figured, secluded locale, natural hot springs, no internet, no press, half naked bodies searching for Nirvana, I'd have ample opportunities to 'bump' into her and share some 'quality time.'" Castle's air quotes hung in space along with his dreamy look.

Espo pressed impatiently, "And?"

"And nothing. She arrived 10 minutes before she gave her little talk, and airlifted out about 5 minutes after. Swarming around her the whole time were half a dozen girlfriends, intercepting anyone who wasn't the yogi facilitating the retreat. Instead, I spent a whole week trying to tie myself in a human knot, in close quarters with people, who considered bathing more of an option, than a requirement." Castle screwed his face up in distaste. "I had to scrub myself in lemons for 3 hours, before my publicist would let me go in public again."

Kate loved to hear how karma tortured the shallow, especially Castle.

Undeterred by the writer's detour, Ryan addressed Beckett, "I've arranged for passes to her after party, so we can go in plain clothes without alerting her publicist. And Esposito's done his homework, so we'll pass for fans. No one will even know New York's finest were there."

Kate considered teasing Kevin for his thinly veiled objective, but decided against it. She was more interested in keeping Castle's nose out of the Stone lead. The last thing she wanted to deal with was her shadow hitting on her person of interest, _again._ Besides, her boys deserved a free pass after the week they'd had, slogging through an especially tedious array of thankless grunt work.

"Okay, Ryan, but I'm expecting lots of actual police intel, not just observations about what kind of champagne they served, and how revealing her neckline was. You know, little details like, where she and her friends were at the time of our murder, how they came in contact with our vic, and how much the publicist knew. Every detail could be the one that breaks this case open. And once she heads back to LA tomorrow night, we may not get another crack at this." Kate made her glare a little more serious than the lead warranted, in hopes that her subordinates could hear her over their internal giddiness.

Esposito whipped out the most serious and reassuring voice he could manage "Of course, Beckett. We got this."

Ryan put on his angelic choir boy face, "I can assure you, we'll be _very_ thorough."

"Okay, Castle, let's get going." Her resolve was all that was needed to set the room in motion.

"Why, Detective Beckett, are you anxious to keep me all to yourself? Don't want to share with Ms. Stone?" Castle teased while marching himself obediently towards the elevator.

"You wish, writer-boy. I was just hoping you'd fold yourself into a neat little pretzel, so you could ride in the trunk."

After the elevator doors closed on Castle and Beckett, Ryan retreated to the break room, Esposito to the men's room. Glancing around to be sure they were not being watched, each lost their cool for a private moment, letting out a silent scream of anticipation before they regained composure. The detectives strode back to their desks, with a little too much macho swagger, and nonchalantly mumbled something about going home to change. They left their desks in opposite directions, letting their legs carry them as fast as they thought they could get away with, without calling attention to the fact that they were both internally _freaking out_ about tonight's prospects.

The laws of the social order kept regular working stiffs, like Kevin and Javier, from ever coming in contact with the likes of Stone. Unlike Castle, the only time they rubbed elbows with the uber-rich was when they were cuffing one on a murder charge. Meeting Ms. Stone was a once-in-a-lifetime shot.

* * *

Around midnight, the partners were clean shaven, dressed in their best tailored suits, smelling of top-shelf cologne, and handing keys to a valet. They strutted into the glitzy after party with one thing on their minds - getting an audience with Stone, _before_ the other one had a chance. On the drive over it had all come out.

"Bro, you should let me do the talking when we find Ms. Stone. We go waaaaay back."

"You know her?" Kevin spat out. He decided to give Javi the 'I call bullshit' face.

Ryan wasn't just a casual fan. He had bumped into Ms. Stone by chance 8 years ago, when he visited his cousin in LA. But had been so completely flummoxed by a momentary brush of her skin, he couldn't get a word out, just managed to trip over himself, and sprain his arm in the most embarrassing way. Countless nights of study and fantasizing later, he knew exactly what he would do, if he got his second chance. He felt they were fated to meet, and he considered it divine intervention that her name came up in an investigation on the very same week she would be attending the premier of her latest film _in New York_.

Espo casually readjusted his rear view mirror, to get another look at his hair.

"She taught me everything I know, bro. I learned all my moves with her. Where to touch a woman, how to take hold of her, and when the time is right...how to taste her in just the way she needs."

"What?!" Ryan's forehead screwed up in disbelief. Of all the times they tried to one-up each others' bedroom conquest tales, over a game of Darts-n-Hearts, he had _never_ mentioned this. There was no way he could've held onto this little gem. This would've made him a legend, not just a hero. Touching Cassandra Stone was not something that Javier Esposito could've kept to himself, especially from his best friend.

"I don't believe it."

"It's true. When I was thirteen, my cousin got hold of _Eternal Secrets_ on VHS." Esposito gloated.

"You're kidding me. You watched a porn video in 8th grade?" Kevin's wiseass was showing, "That explains a lot."

"Not just once, I watched it every day after school for a year. I studied every move, every gesture. I was on a mission. My plan was that by the time I got into high school, I was gonna be a new man, ready to rock some lucky girl's world, like Cassandra rocked mine." The memories came flooding back, putting a faraway look in Javi's eyes. His fingertips absently brushed thick Latin lips in nostalgia.

"Lemme tell you, bro, there is no part of this woman that I don't know...intimately"

Ryan squawked, "Ha! That's your big relationship? Listen, just because you've seen the only porno flick she ever made, does not mean you **_know_** her. Her later work reveals so much more of who she is _as a person."_

Ryan began to geek out_._ "I've seen everything she's done, seen every rare interview. She is so much more than a moaning co-ed writhing to bad 80's music."

"Hey, bro, do _not _knock the Cali brothers. That shit was classic and timeless."

Javi considered porn producers Ira and Gordie Cali, who hired Stone for her first role on film, _Eternal Secrets_, to be legends of their time...much like the Cohen brothers of the big screen, but with more lube.

"Javi, I'm just saying. I'm sure you've got a special, um, _bond _with her. But when it comes time to do the talking, don't you think **_I_** should handle the more nuanced conversations? A woman like that, with so much...magnetism. She needs to feel respected, listened to. She needs to feel like she can really open up."

"Don't worry, bro, she's gonna feel safe." Esposito drew out the words to make them sound dirty. "These guns can protect her all night long." And just to be extra douchey, he lifted his hand from the wheel, to flex his bicep, and give it an ever-so-affectionate kiss.

This was getting ridiculous. Ryan turned to Espo, and lowered his voice, "Wanna bet?"

"Whatchyou mean?"

"The insider fan site I read, said that she's accustomed to choosing a stranger of her liking, on these rare occasions when she makes appearances. The lucky bastard gets a private audience with her _alone, _and away from prying eyes. The perfect time to interrogate her thoroughly, without anyone finding out. Two weeks worth of paper work says I'm gonna be that lucky bastard tonight."

Kevin had strategized, researched and practiced. He considered this bet a sure thing.

Esposito wasn't about to let this chance get away, either. His thirteen year old hormones came rushing back.

"Oh no no. If anyone's the lucky bastard, it's me!" Javi raised.

Espo thought it over. Sure, he and Ryan had been each other's wing man plenty of times. They had a bro code of conduct. They were used to stepping aside to make sure they each got a fair shot to make the best play. They even had their own language of hand gestures to silently signal the other. No way he was stepping aside this time, though. Not for _'his'_ Cassandra.

"I gotta warn you, little man. I'm not gonna hold back, just cause you my partner and all." Esposito poured it on, "When it comes to my Lady Cassandra, ain't no stopping this train from pulling into her station."

"Well, we'll just see about that, huh." Ryan smiled to himself as he watched his counterpart widen his eyes and shift his weight in the drivers seat. The older detective changed his driving from 'relaxed cruising' to 'poll position.' Javi was most prone to making an ass of himself, and alienating women, when he revved his machismo engine like this. It was in the bag.

* * *

The detectives passed under the chandelier, through the foyer of the small ballroom, one at a time. The entrance was intentionally set up to give everyone already at the party a chance to easily check out the new arrivals. It was the first of many gauntlets Stone's would-be suitors would have to pass through. Ryan already had his game face on. With a quiet sure-footed gait, scorching blue eyes, and slender waist, he was drawing stares. He pretended he didn't notice the eyes burning into the back of his neck, and made his way to the bar, nice and slow.

Esposito was a little less prepared for all the gawking at his entrance, but when he saw how many fine ladies were checking out his physique, and delicious caramel flavored eyes, he was able to find his suave strut. Predictably, he met Ryan at the bar with even more bravado than he came in with. "I hope you like paperwork, bro. Cause it's on."

"We'll see," Ryan said picking up his drink for a sip.

"I'll start with her." The younger detective pointed discreetly to a woman he recognized from the entourage. A redhead in a red dress with a sly smile, who had been scrutinizing him, like a hunter spotting prey.

"Fine. I'll start with her." Esposito locked eyes with a tall drink of mocha, who could have been Naomi Campbell's thinner sister, with improbably high cheek bones, and a model-esque frame.

* * *

Ms. Cassandra Stone scanned the guests from the third balcony, looking for her trusted friends. The world famous actress hated crowds, and hated small talk. She was tortured by these public appearances, and rarely agreed to them. Ironically, she loved intimate moments with strangers. That's what drew her first to porn, then to film, which she found even more intimate. She chose very revealing roles, but insisted on closed sets. At an event like this, her only consolation was that it offered the chance to find a perfect stranger, that she could escape with.

Of course, Stone's publicist _hated_ these inclinations in her client. Ducking out of parties, with unvetted strangers, made Cassandra a target for the ill-intentioned and the tabloids. Cassandra's entourage had taken on the job of hand picking her best options for an engaging evening, while also keeping her out of harm's way. The redhead swooning over Ryan's pearly whites, and conspiratorial tone, was Cassandra's best friend, Jaqui.

Jaqui loved her role as match maker, especially this part of the night, watching the parade of men (and women), calling over the most qualified candidates, grilling them with intimate questions. She didn't have the stomach for one night stands, but damn did she revel in the meat market. All kinds of beautiful people were in attendance, smelling scrumptious, bulging with high hopes and hormones. And it was her job to cull _the_ catch from the crowd. Her task was made all the more interesting because the candidate didn't need any long term viability like a stable job or a good family. He, or she, just needed to be someone Cassandra could dive into, and escape the pressure of what she called 'fixed outcomes.' She was just looking for the makings of an amazing night for her BFF, one that wouldn't end her career, or worse, end with her shackled in a stalker's dungeon.

It wasn't long before Jaqui was escorting Ryan past the velvet ropes to the third floor. Ryan's research and planning were paying off, but now he had to focus. He was getting insanely nervous, which usually resulted in an overly self-conscious furrowed brow. Sometimes his voice would even squeak. He just hoped when he saw her, the fear would work to his advantage, like it did when he was undercover.

When Detective Ryan infiltrated the Irish Mob, he found that the fear rising in his stomach would focus him. It helped him be cooler and smoother than his usual klutzy self. With the help of the acid rising in his stomach, he hoped he could become a cooler, smoother Kevin Ryan for Ms. Stone, if not forever, at least long enough to get him in the door.

Luckily, when he finally laid eyes on her, standing in the hallway, leaning shyly against the wall, something balanced in him. Ryan could feel his center of gravity drop into his feet. All he had to do was follow them to her, and keep his impossibly blue eyes trained on hers.

* * *

Jaqui wasn't the only one scouting though. Some of Cassandra's other friends had spotted Javier Esposito's fine frame, and were putting him through his paces. Currently, the women were enjoying baiting him with a one-armed push up challenge, which he couldn't refuse after he lost the tequila-shot speed challenge to a girl named Kimi. Since Kimi probably weighed a buck ten soaking wet, Esposito's pride was looking to recover.

"...68, 69, 70, 71..." A crowd had gathered around the spectacle of Esposito's dance floor calisthenics. Two floors above, the keenly focused Ryan finally locked eyes with the aloof Ms. Stone. The actress smiled at him, but before he could get a word out, little Kimi tugged Cassandra over to the railing, and whispered something in her ear. She was pointing at the Espo show below.

In a moment, Javier was topping the stairs, his stride full of confidence, white dress shirt unbuttoned to his chest, cuffs of his sleeves rolled up to mid forearm. He was flush with exhilaration. The macho twitch, that usually got him into trouble with the ladies, had melted away in the physical activity. Now he glistened with calm presence. He knew all he had to do was let that energy flowing through him find its way to Cassandra.

Ryan's plan had a hitch in it now.

* * *

******To the extraordinary Ms. Scarlett, Twisha, and MBG, thanks for being "my people." Your suggestions were golden.**

**********My very first "stab" at fanfic ever, please let me know if anything turned you on, or made you laugh, but please be ever so kind to the 'fresh meat'. Where my fellow Ryan and Espo lovers? And, really, why are you so quiet on this site? Let me know you were here, with a review or PM.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Welcome back to the bro-down! **

**Giant megatron bombs of gratitude to Twisha and SelimPensFiction for kicking my novice booty into completing this ever-so-humble draft. And love to Starships and Stopwatches for the gushy review of Ch1 ;) **

Chapter 2:

"Bro, what do you think they're talking about over there?" Espo's roiling confidence grew a little impatient, when he noticed Cassandra, Kimi and the redhead congregating at the far end of the hall.

Ryan quipped, "That's easy. They're trying to decide how to let you down easy, man."

"It's you who'll be finding another way home tonight, partner." Esposito's voice climbed an octave, "Did you see that pint-sized honey fly up those steps? She ran straight to Cassandra to tell her that the answer-to-all-her-prayers has arrived."

"Then why did Ms. Stone's _best friend_ tell me, to wait here for my introduction?"

"You mean that redhead? Well, maybe she hadn't got the memo yet, because the way she's over there shopping me right now, I'd say she's asking Ms. Stone if she can share some of this." Espo drew his fingers around his face and down his chest to indicate the merchandise in question.

"Aw partner, it's only a matter of time before you stuff those overly shiny loafers in your mouth, and blow your shot." Kevin clapped Javier's shoulder in mock empathy. "But don't worry, I'll be _very _comforting when she comes to me to clean up your mess."

Javi jerked his elbow in a circle to shirk off Kevin's condescending gesture. "Not tonight, bro. Tonight's gonna be different." Noticing Kimi headed toward him, he added "In fact, I believe that's my cue."

* * *

"Kimi, can you find out how much longer I need to endure this?" Cassandra complained. Her third balcony perch still wasn't far enough away from the crowd. Even with the velvet ropes, there had to be a dozen people on this floor she didn't know.

"Sure thing" Kimi started out expeditiously on her mission to find the hotel's point person. As the newest member of the entourage, she still found a few stars in her eyes when Ms. Stone spoke. Everyday she learned so much from her new friend. Today, her mind was chewing on Cassandra's latest confession. _'I can't fix me, I'm weird, just like everybody else, not special, not freakish, mostly just lucky. But when I treat my imperfections as immovable objects, I don't have to chase, I'm able to feast on the life right in front of me.'_ Kimi thoroughly enjoyed preparing tonight's feast, it felt amazing to be needed by a woman like Stone.

You see, the prominent feature of Cassandra Stone's strangeness, which her entourage was mainly employed to protect, was an almost clairvoyant sensitivity to touch, like psychometry, but with people. When Cassandra touched another person's skin, she was bombarded with sensations and images, that drew her into a bond with her counterpart. If the images were inviting, she was filled with a hunger to know them more completely, to grok them, which skipped over all the social prescriptions for polite chit chat about the weather and what inane thing one did for a living.

When Stone lavished her unique kind of enthusiastic, undivided attention on a person, it usually inspired a fierce loyalty to her, made people pliable. When she could give into her yearnings to dive even deeper, it was an intensely pleasurable experience for both parties, even when it didn't lead to something carnal. But the actress was usually too wrapped up in the experience to use it as a means of manipulation, except when strictly necessary to protect herself, of course.

Hence, Ms. Stone's erotic film experience at 17 had been transformative, for everyone. At first glance, her more experienced co-star, Jack 'The Electric' Hammer, mistook Stone for just another camera-shy, desperate teenager turning to porn in a futile search for power and solace. Hammer was completely _un_prepared for the level of intimacy she would evoke from him. It was no doubt his best performance ever, and he turned dangerously obsessive when shooting ended, especially when Cassandra turned her attentions elsewhere.

Cassandra fidgeted uncomfortably, "How did all these people get up here, anyway? Why don't they want to be downstairs, where the actual party is?"

"Aren't we right here with you?" Jaqui reassured, "No one is getting through us, unless you say so."

Thankfully, Jaqui had been there to kick Mr. Electric in the balls, grab his ridiculous Fabio hair, and drag him out of the room before he could force his attentions on the young actress. The first of many times her Jax, as she affectionately called her, would save her life.

Despite the close call, the sensitive starlet knew she had to get in front of a camera again, so she sought a slightly safer arena. A year later, it was again the indomitable redhead, that pushed her bestie, Cassie, into the audition that would catapult her film acting career into the stratosphere.

The real problem for Ms. Stone was in her peripheral job requirements. Cassie was golden one-on-one or on display to millions. It was that middle distance of social interaction, like a press junket, or the soiree that Kevin and Javier entered tonight, where her 'gift' was an excruciating curse.

Jaqui took note of the tension gripping Cassandra's shoulders. "Hang in there, girl," she consoled. "You're doing fine, and I've got a very special catch on the line for you tonight." Jaqui flicked her head toward Ryan who was staring over the railing, waiting for the all clear. "That is, _if_ he passes."

"Oh really?" Cassandra jumped at the chance to banter with her friend, visibly relieved by the distraction. "Well, Kimi seems to think that the hunky one next to him, is gonna win out." Cassandra traced Esposito's silhouette in the air with the hand holding her drink.

Jaqui indulged in a little leering at Espo, herself. "Maybe. They certainly both have merits." A blush rose in the redhead's cheeks with the memory of Ryan's knee accidentally brushing her inner thigh as they left their table a few moments before.

Kimi interjected, "You haven't touched them yet, right?" Tonight marked the first time one of her picks made it into the final round. She still hoped that Espo was her lucky ticket to the winners circle.

"Nope." Jaqui reassured. "They're over there...sweating bullets, by the looks of things."

Cassandra smiled, her friends had done well, as usual. She doubted her girls understood how truly lost she would be without them. Her heart bubbled to see them having fun with it. After a grueling six week promotional tour, that required an outstanding array of coping mechanisms, _all_ of them deserved to order their favorite sensual pleasure off the menu tonight. They needed this.

But Cassie had to be careful, lest she become overwhelmed. At the slightest contact, a brush of a hand or a touch of the lips, she could lose her place in sentences, disappear into sensation. It wasn't completely debilitating, mind, she could still function, but it was awkward and uncomfortable for both parties, easier to simply avoid it altogether.

She developed a shyness and became reclusive to compensate. And in childhood, these subtle tactics were enough to get her through. But, she _needed_ an entourage to protect her from the disproportionate attentions directed at a bonafide movie star.

"The hotel says the pre-show will start any minute now," Kimi reported. "All eyes will be on that floor show, and away from you, very soon. When the mirrored ball drops, you are off the hook, contract complete, studio happy, publicist appeased, and the rest of the night to do what turns _you_ on." Ms. Stone's newest friend was very calming, good at walking her through the details, and keeping everyone's eye on the prize.

"You've made it through much worse than this," Jaqui jibed. "Remember Thailand?" The comment stole a little snort of comic recollection from both women, as the image of an overstuffed bus with chickens, snakes and a curiously handsy monkey popped into their heads.

Stone was willing to squeeze herself into just enough uncomfortable situations, to keep her career alive, and no more. But every time she accepted too many public appearances too close together, she bared her teeth like a caged animal and resolved to give up her career once and for all.

That's when Stone's entourage would step in, and take the necessary, if sometimes elaborate, measures that were needed to keep her sane and working. This lifestyle, although ridiculous at times, was fantastic for Cassandra and her close friends most of the time.

"Ah, this is it," Kimi announced, pointing out the shimmery disco lights painting the crowd below. "Show's starting. Now, all you have to do is choose one, before you are free to escape."

With a hug for both women, Kimi reminded, " Now, don't forget to text me when it's time for breakfast." On her way to the party downstairs, she gently touched Esposito's shoulder, sending him towards Stone.

"Lucky bastards have no idea." Jax said to herself with a wink at Ryan to give him the green light.

Cassie grabbed Jax' hand appreciatively. "I'm good now, go dance, enjoy the peacocks on parade. Better get your kicks in now before they all get too drunk and some poor fool snaps open your special can of whoop ass." Jax loved when Cassie talked beneath her schooling.

"Call me if you need anything at all." She kissed her Cassie on the cheek.

* * *

Ms. Stone settled herself back in a little corner, arms crossed. She stood uncomfortably against a door jam as far away as possible from the railing and the prying eyes below. This was the hardest part for her, even with all the layers of protection from her friends, and the secluded meeting place on her terms. She still had to decide in public. And now they were both standing in front of her at the same time. *Awkward*

Javier wasted no time. Lifting her hand in his, he humbled himself and slowly offered his most sincere, "Ms. Stone, my name is Javier Esposito. It is my pure pleasure to meet you."

He brought his lips to her hand, kissed it slowly, and turned his mocha eyes toward her to convey the rest of his covetous intentions. Kimi had warned him that anything more than a dozen words would most likely disqualify him. '_Be sincere, open, and to the point,_' she had coached.

To Cassandra, Esposito's hand felt like lava pouring into her, the longer he held it, the further it climbed into her arm, then her chest. When he kissed the back of her hand, magma dropped deep into her stomach. She lost herself for a moment. Standing there melting, she felt that her feet may have slipped away. She could swear that a hot wind was blowing through her, like she was riding a magic carpet, and his hand was the only thing to hold onto.

When her fingers slipped out of Javi's grasp, the room reappeared and she found herself back where she started. But now she was flushed and a little hungover from the ride. She began to cringe as her senses confronted the suddenly too bright lights, garish brass doorknobs, and scratchy carpet. She wanted to retreat from the now seemingly crass reality of the hallway.

Seeing that Espo was a step ahead of him, Ryan panicked. With a surreptitious elbow, he nudged his partner back a few steps, allowing just enough room to wedge himself between the two. Ryan purposely eclipsed Esposito's view, so he could stand directly in front of Ms. Stone. Having been similarly coached on how to approach her, Ryan scooped her hand into his, and held it to his chest. Trying to create some semblance of privacy, he leaned them both against the wall conspiratorially.

"My name is Ryan, Kevin Ryan. And we've met actually." His left eye brow raised characteristically, Irish eyes glinting, punctuating his sentence with irresistible Ryanesque charm.

Cassandra was suddenly inches away from those hypnotic blue eyes. They were cool antidote to Javi's heat, which was still pulsing through her. She fell in, head first, floating in the crystalline waters of his iris. The swirling eddies made her head swim. Trying to rebalance herself, she followed Ryan's scent, which reminded her of clean linen and comfort.

For a moment, Ryan's touch and smell transported her. She heard the sounds of the waves from the porch of a seaside cottage. She found herself staring at a vase of white daffodils on an antique wooden table. She was wrapped in a wool blanket. The hide-away world he created in her was illuminated by diffuse light through grey clouds. Everything was quiet. Under the weight of his hand, his chest muscles felt steady like a safe harbor.

The signature of Kevin's touch was everything opposite of the overdone publicity circus she had to endure earlier in the day. She wanted to stay there, in this universe created by their connection. Everything came into quiet focus there. She desperately wanted that clarity.

Kevin continued to press her hand firmly against his heart, but Javier's spiced-latte voice broke through the trance with steamed heat.

"Cassandra, may I call you Cassandra? I believe you would be more comfortable somewhere private." He tucked himself behind her, so his words could breathe into her ear and her back could feel the heat of his chest.

Ryan, still locked in his gaze, reassured her with words he had rehearsed a hundred times in the mirror.

"Don't worry. I can protect you. If you'll let me."

She was woozy from the undertow of both of them, they were saying and doing all the right things. It _all_ felt right. But the aching weight of having to choose was obfuscating all the fun, all the intimacy. So she wrested herself away from both of them, and started walking away from the party, up the hall, attempting to clear her head.

* * *

"Bro! I had her," Javi hissed.

"No way," Kevin shot back.

Over her shoulder, Cassandra heard their angry whispers. She spun around, eyes aglow.

"You know each other?" she demanded.

Kevin and Javier both felt their hopes drop into the pits of their stomachs with a heavy thud. Slowly, and guiltily they shook their heads, "Yes."

"Come with me." she said flatly.

She unlocked the door behind Javi, and shut it when all three of them were inside. Immediately, she was more at ease. In a darkened room, with only the hallway light overhead, and a door to shut out the world - she was free. She could be anyone she wanted. She thrust Kevin against the wall, and kissed him longingly on the mouth.

In an instant, she was behind Javier roughly tracing the perfect curve of his backside, around his hips until she could squeeze his inner thighs hungrily. Javi's eyes bulged as every part of him came to full attention.

Kevin still hadn't caught his breath yet. Damn she moved fast.

"Would you stay with me tonight?"

"Me?" the men asked in unison, both pointing a finger at their own chest.

"Yes." She answered, disappearing into the bedroom.

* * *

Javier pulled Kevin into the bathroom and shut the door. In a loud whisper, he warned:

" Bro, if we do this, we need ground rules."

"Agreed. What are you thinking?"

" Rule one. No one's dick enters any part, whatsoever, of the other dude"

Kevin nodded, then added his own, "Rule two. We take this to our graves."

Javi added quickly, "Rule Three. I get to go first," as he scooted out the door, into the bedroom, and closed the door behind him. Kevin was three steps behind when the door latched closed in his face.

"Damnit, Javi! Not cool" he hissed to himself, curling his fist in frustration, totally unsure what to do with himself in this highly unusual situation.

* * *

The bedroom was mostly dark, moonlight pouring in from the balcony to Javier's left. Cassandra was standing in front of the fireplace on the far wall. But she didn't turn to look at him.

"Would you like some ice water?" She held up her glass.

He walked directly to her, still full of adrenaline. He pressed himself behind her, fit his mouth behind her ear, and reached his hand under the glass. Breathing in her scent, Espo answered a weighty and committed, "Yes."

His muscular body was a column of heat behind her, closing her in with the heat from the fire at her toes. He drank some water, and placed the glass on the mantle, leaning them both closer to the flames. But Javi saved a strategic ice cube in his teeth. With his right hand, he swept the hair off her neck. His left arm wrapped around her waist strongly. '_Let__'__s see if she__'__s still the girl I remember_,' Javi mused silently.

When he pressed the cold ice behind her ear, a little gasp escaped her throat. His teeth ran the melting cube down the right side of her neck, and across the back of her hairline to the exact spot he remembered marking all those years ago. He thrilled to see her involuntarily quiver, in exactly the same way that she had on screen. The memory was etched in stone, indelible in his mind. And he had just affected a reenactment with his own real-life lips. '_Please tell me this is really happening_' he implored himself.

When she squirmed sensually, his arm tightened around her waist. Melting ice droplets were her only salvation against the heat. His swelling behind her increased the heat, making her a little dizzy. Her hands searched over his hard thighs for something to steady herself. But the heat became too much, all the air was being sucked out of the room, she couldn't breathe.

She broke away, forcing her lungs into deep breaths, racing to the cool side of the room. When Cassie flung open the door, she found Kevin standing in front of it, with an unsure look, apparently still deciding what to do. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him into the room. Holding on for dear life, panting on Kevin's chest, she rinsed off Javi's scorch in the cool blue moonlight. Finally, when Ryan returned her embrace, and ran his hands along her back soothingly, her breath returned, and her autonomy renewed.

She whispered in Kevin's ear, "Will you stay?"

Kevin nodded, swallowing his apprehension about what a trio might mean, his eyes solemnly committed to hers. "Yeah, I'll stay."

With that, Cassandra turned to Javier with a thrilled smile.

Javi tried to mask his ambivalence with a casual, "Can I make you a drink?" turning toward the mini bar.

"No!" she shut him down. She could feel him shifting gears into a polite let's-get-to-know-each-other type conversation.

Infuriated by the invasion of meaningless, distance-creating words, she flashed.

Of course, most women wanted conversation and lots of foreplay. But to Cassandra, that seemed really backwards. She was inclined to fuck first, ask questions later. Not because she wasn't interested in what he had to say. On the contrary, she wanted to dive into all of it, all the meaty layers of his drives, fears, quirks and tastes, and Kevin's too. But if Cassandra was going to get any pleasure out of it, she had to obey her own built in command for a specific order of operations. Touching, not talking, had to come first.

Luckily, her fame and money allowed her the luxury of her taboo whims. But her Hollywood world was so fake. She wanted to taste the _real_ Javier & Kevin. And in her experience, bodies were the only part of people that _couldn't_ lie.

To regain control, she ran over to Esposito, grabbed the back of his neck, and gathered his lips into an exuberant kiss. Javi passionately kissed back, running his hands up and down the sides of her body, shuddering in gratitude that he didn't have to maneuver his way through a minefield of calculating chit chat, while his body was aching for something much more direct.

But, ultimately, Javi would have to wait.


	3. Chapter 3

**Warnings: Het M explicit, put the kids to bed, and turn out the lights, folks. Plus, the tone is Cassie specific, so more nature and less urban than Castle canon (and most fanfic I****'****ve read). Nothin****' ****but steam here, but I promise the bromantic banter will return with good times in Chapter 4. Will you admit to your smutty preferences, with a review, if I say ****"****please****"****? ;) **

Chapter 3:

Ryan watched warily as the passionate kisses between Javier Esposito and Cassandra Stone approached a rolling boil. With so much obvious passion between the actress and his BFF, he was feeling very unsure about how he fit into tonight's plan, and more than a little concerned that she wanted him there just to watch. Easy to forget the little guy.

But Kevin soon forgot that worry.

With visible strain, Cassandra pushed herself away from Javier, resting a hushing finger over his still searching lips. Despite his shallow panting, Espo managed to control himself when she motioned again for silence, with a single finger pressed vertically to her own wet mouth. With effort, Javi forced himself to downshift. He didn't really believe it would be _that_ easy, not with a woman like Stone.

Cassandra knew, with every ounce of her, the very first thing she had to do was return to that safe harbor inside Kevin.

In the dark, Ryan stood awash in blue moonlight, awaiting her procession across the room. Her urgent hands lead her straight to his top shirt button, which she flicked open, in order to kiss the smooth chest beneath. The embrace of sensation wrapped two strong arms around her, and pulled her into the private world that only his touch could create. His skin commuted her to a sanctuary, holy, quiet, and peaceful. Above her, blue and gold light filtered down through the stained glass windows in his eyes. She flooded with the urge to worship here, to kneel, and pray.

With a pop of the second button, she kissed his sternum, then peeled his jacket down off compliant shoulders. One button, one kiss...one more button, another kiss. She continued down her clearly marked path, until his belt blocked her progress.

When she tugged the front of Kevin's shirt out of his pants, the idle Javier decided to sit down in the armchair next to the fire, collecting the ice water from the mantle. Javi was fairly skeptical about watching his partner be undressed, but watching Cassandra in such an act of intimacy was exactly how he had come to adore her, all those years ago. As voyeur, he reconciled that he was getting his own private demonstration of her talents, a live screening, if you will. Mesmerized by her single-minded grace, he decided not to overthink it, and just watch what happened.

For a moment, Kevin's apologetic eyes searched Javi's face for some sign of absolution. The reflexively over-considerate young detective had no interest in making his best friend uncomfortable, even for his celebrity dream girl. Finding his partner's features flat, he shrugged at Espo helplessly.

But that all ended when Stone bit into the sensitive skin on Ryan's navel. Instantly, Kevin's eyes clamped closed, and his access to the outside world slammed shut. As far as he could tell, he and Cassandra stood alone in their sanctuary.

For Ryan, time stopped. The click of his belt unlatching echoed inside him. The ripping sound of his zipper rumbled through his core. Something cold, a quick jolt, and the elastic on his boxers fell slack. The winding pleasure of her tongue, slowly exploring the trail of hair down his navel, was pierced repeatedly by her teeth. Between bites, the endless anticipation was invaded only by the occasional 'snap' of moisture escaping from logs in the fireplace.

She bit with the desire to take a delicious chunk of his sweet butter cream body for herself, barely able to let go before she broke skin. Each sharp dig sent a twinge down Kevin's legs, making him grateful for each bite. Without the brief pain to punctuate his pleasure, he felt sure he would float away in airy disbelief.

"Saint fucking Christoper, this is really happening, isn't it?"

Kevin's silent cross-examination ordered his senses to give him a second report for verification. He flipped his eyelids open to take a split-second snap shot of her position below him. The image captured her hair shining in lustrous reflection of the hearth blaze, which he hastily burned into the back of his eyelids for later review.

From the back, he appeared fully dressed. From the front, she clearly hollowed a tunnel from his mouth, down his chest, into _her_ mouth. Their own private channel. She sucked the light salt and sweetness off his skin, then licked her way further down to find a new place to bite, this time just a light prick of her teeth. His groin screamed to be included in this torturous game, causing his muscle to pulse inside what was left of his boxers.

The wanting that comes from years of fantasy is really something outside the realm of a one night stand, or any lover, really. Every Ryan, past and future, was watching over his shoulder: 10 year old Ryan masturbating in bedcovers, 20-something Ryan idolizing Stone at the movies, 30-something Ryan maybe ready to marry, and 50-something Ryan taking stock of his life's most amazing moments. His time-bending mind, told each of them this was real, in hopes he would start to believe it himself.

Just when he thought his hips might buck from the unbearable pressure, she used both hands to gently guide his semi-hardness out and into her mouth.

His taste reminded her of vanilla and butterscotch, with the intimate smell of skin that rarely sees sun. She licked the underside of his head and explored the slit for pre-cum that might tell her more. She held and licked his length like an ice cream cone that might melt, if she didn't give every angle her attention.

His length grew immediately in her hands, eliciting a little squeal of anticipation from Stone. Sucking his head in, she reached around the soft skin of his inner thighs, using her elbows to create enough room for her to explore the crease where his legs met his groin, tracing every inch under him. Both her hands reached up to grasp his buttocks from inside his pants, bowing his body closer, and pulling him deeper into her mouth.

Humming with her own excitement, she started a gentle rhythm. His dick seemed made for eating, delicious and smooth. She felt no need to rush, but moved faster in her desperation to hear him groan a little, to corroborate her perceived effectiveness.

Mutely he prayed, "Oh fuck, Lord, let me hold out long enough to enjoy this."

In the rhythm, helpless Kevin Ryan hardened to steel. She tightened her hand around the base of his shaft to help accentuate the strokes. Her own wetness marked her rising internal ache, her core thrumming gratefully to echo his pleasure.

"Auuuugh...aughhhh" A long winding groan roared through him, scrubbing away every stress in his body.

He couldn't feel his legs anymore, but was vaguely aware that his chest was curling forward in ecstasy. He tried not to come, but it felt blasphemous to think about anything else but this gift she was giving him. The gift he had been fantasizing about for years, whenever he needed to come quickly.

Her left hand on his perfectly cooperative ass was thrusting him a little deeper each time. Cassandra's middle finger buried itself between his cheeks, until it found the sensitive pucker hiding between them. One quick press against his anus shot a high pitched squeak from Kevin's pursed lips. With three more pulls, he was coming in her mouth, shuddering from the detonating force of it.

While his head spun thoughtlessly in vertigo, she had time to drape something over his eyes, and scoot something into the backs of his knees. He couldn't control the rubber feeling in his legs anyway, so he happily collapsed into the cushy loveseat behind him, certain he was the most happily incapacitated man alive.

* * *

Javier enjoyed watching more than he thought he would, 'must've been those three shots of tequila,' he reasoned. He wasn't so keyed up anymore, but he'd been patient enough, and crossed the room, to stand near the foot of the bed.

"Water?" Javi offered her the glass.

While she was drinking, he started peeling off her wide belt, with no intention of asking her for permission. Unstrapped, her dress hung loosely, exalting her body with one less constriction, circulating air to skin too long constrained. In gratitude, Cassandra's mind came back to Javier.

After the last two encounters, Cassie was a little anxious that his heat would be too much, move too fast. But now she was grounded in a subterranean spring that Ryan had laid in her, and Javi was working more slowly this time. Steadily, he drew her knee to his navel, so he could unzip her left boot, then her right. With her hard edges gone, she looked much more vulnerable. He spread his legs to match her reduced height, reached down, under her dress, and sent fingers searching upward for her waistband, then knelt to peel her legs free of their confinement.

With every expanse of skin he uncovered, the night felt more alive. He raised himself to reveal his single minded purpose, pouring all his desire through two resolute mocha eyes. In their dark centers, Cassie could see the fireplace flames dancing. His unwavering stare left no room to wiggle around uncertainties. She was caught by him. Somehow, she didn't feel trapped though. She felt claimed, in a curiously inarguable way.

This was definitely a sensation she could dive into for hours. He lifted her dress over her head, and raked his hands down the sides of her body, stoking a host of new sensations on her now fully naked skin. The sound of buzzing locusts rose in her ears from the tactile contact.

Her hands moved on their own to remove Javi's shirt. Soon they were full of his bare chest, his muscled shoulders, his biceps, his back. Every bulging hardened curve painted in golden firelight sent twinges down her pelvis. Without warning, he lifted her to the bed, as if she were weightless.

Everywhere he touched her awoke the most vibrant teleporting images. She became part of the night. With his hands mapping her body, her breasts became the Amazon. Her shoulders the tree canopy. Her back the rich earth. Her hips writhing with animals. She felt herself being pulled to the foot of the bed, widened, his hot breath between her legs.

Javi quietly informed her pussy, "I'm gonna rock your world, Mamacita."

The first slow lick of his tongue brought a light summer rain. With careful attention, he outlined her every fold and curve, noting every place that awarded him a gratifying noise. She couldn't hear the moans from her own throat. All she heard was the rainforest. The ache in her walls was the current pulling the river. It wound back and forth without end, longing for the sea. Lick after circular lick, the pressure of his fingers traced her opening, pressed inside her, curled against her heights and thrust against the deepest dam in her. His tongue moved fast and slow, while wet fingers found every sensitive opening. She felt herself being hurled over waterfalls, orgasmic over and over, but none of them brought her to the end of desire.

Suddenly, she was left to float restlessly alone. Her heart rate tried to calm, her panting slowed, her muscles unclenched, the sweat under her neck began to cool. After a moment her eyes tried to open, but she couldn't tell if she was still dreambound. At the foot of the bed approached what appeared to be a glistening Aztec god, bronze and glowing in firelight, fully erect, naked except for the condom. Her insides begged to envelope him.

Pulling her legs over the side of the bed, he finally broke the silence, with a strenuously slow and measured command,

"Say please."

Before her "please" was fully out of her mouth, he thrust inside her, and again, and again. With strong deft hands, he rolled her squarely on her belly. And after a readjusting stroke, he broke into an athletic pace. This idol replaced all the waiting and aching, with his impossibly hard and fast impacts, deep inside her. She couldn't fully feel out the pleasure of one thrust before another began.

Mighty hands gripped her hips, expertly guiding them into the longest stroke he could manage, without once leaving her. His pace was impressive and unrelenting, each new crest of pleasure seemed to spur another wind, and renewed vigor. Every slam against her pelvis made the pleasure more real, and made her somehow more human, and infinitely more alive. Time twisted in the continual syncopated onrush. She couldn't tell how long it was before she was coming unbearably hard, closing around him. Her squeezing entrance robbed him of his determination, and replaced it with a freight train release. With a guttural sound that scraped up the back of his throat, he emptied himself, and dropped onto the bed next to her.

* * *

During all this, Ryan found listening to Cassandra's moans uniquely pleasurable. In his bliss, no hint of jealousy rose. But when the moaning stopped momentarily, one curious eye ventured out of the blindfold. When he beheld a very naked, very erect Javier beginning to push his length inside the supplicated Cassandra, he instinctively covered his eyes again. But this powerful image of his male partner, was already branded onto his brain. And even with his eyes closed, Kevin couldn't look away.

* * *

**Thank you, Selim and Twisha! **

**Anything make you tingly? Please review or PM me. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

"Sooooo... is anyone else hungry?" Ryan figured it was safe to speak, since a respectable amount of time had past since the head board had stopped pounding into the wall.

"I already ate, Bro." Espo drug his tongue across his bottom lip, and flashed his wickedest grin at Ryan.

"Me, too. And he was delicious!" Cassandra joined in the banter, winking at Ryan.

Oh great. Now he had two people to rib him! Ryan's ears flushed bright red as he pulled a pillow over half his face in embarrassment, betraying just how much his defenses were down. It was no use, his perma-grin was plastered to his face, due to the most epic BJ ever. And he didn't care.

He felt more smug than that very first time, when he was 15 with Mary Catherine, behind the convent. The sky had never been so clear or blue. Every blade of grass was electric green on the walk back to school. His buddies knew instantly something was up, and tried to get it out of him. He couldn't betray Mary Catherine like that, so thinking quickly, he ran into the library, and offered to re-shelve books for Sister Francis. Nobody would fuck with Sister Francis, or him if he was under her surveillance. He'd never been so happy to alphabetize catechism texts for hours in silence. It gave him time to relive every amazing mind-blowing sensation all afternoon. And the nuns gave him brownie points for about six months after that, based on his "selfless service." Ah! the semi-miraculous powers of a good blow job. It really was his favorite position.

Ms. Stone took pity on the poor sweet hungry boy, after all, he was the only one still in clothes! How dreadful! She made a mental note to remedy that later.

She rolled over, and pulled her phone out of the bedside table's top drawer, made a few taps on it, and put it away again.

"We have a few minutes to clean ourselves up before something delicious arrives. Then, I want to hear all about how you know each other." She flicked on a soft light in the corner, so she could find her clothes. Then she disappeared into the adjoining room.

When Javi and Kevin heard the shower running, they realized she was serious. Room service or something was on their way, so they only had a few moments to regroup themselves. Javi jumped off the bed to stand in front of Kevin, clutching the sheet to his groin to cover himself.

"Dude, tell me that just really happened. Tell me I just fucked the brains outta Cassandra fucking Stone, after I ate her pussy like an orgasm dispensing machine." Javi mimed an indescript weapon at his shoulder, squinted through his imaginary viewfinder, adding sound effects for multiple explosions.

"Yep, it really did." Kevin smirked.

"Dude, I don't believe you. This is usually the part in the dream when the neighbor's car alarm goes off, and I wake up on the couch, with a half drunk beer in my hand. You're gonna have to hit me, or pinch me, or something." Javi's eyes were wide. He continued to look at Kevin expectantly.

"Wait. You're serious."

"Damn right, hit me, Kev!"

"Not gonna hit chu, bro"

"Okay then, pinch me. I won't feel a thing."

Kevin was happy to oblige his currently ludicrous partner with a plier-like twist to the soft skin under his arm. Javi yelped like a little dog whose owner had stepped on his paw. Then, still clutching the sheet, Javi punched both fists to the sky like Rocky Balboa and walked around the room in triumphant victory, exposing the imaginary cheering crowds to his gloriously naked manhood. Kevin's hand half-shielded his own embarrassed eyes from the spectacle.

After walking around the whole room, Javi announced "I'm the fucking champion... of the mutha fuckin world." And fell backwards into the loveseat, next to Ryan.

His partner was used to laughing at the Espo show when he got a few too many drinks in him, especially when he happened to win a game of Madden. But this display was the most over the top he'd seen. Kevin was laughing so hard from trying to suppress the laugh, that his Irish eyes were beginning to tear up in the corners.

Not that he blamed him. He felt like the luckiest bastard of all time right now, too. And he was uber glad Javi was here right now to share it, even if he had been a little uncomfortable before, during the actual deeds. Kevin's cheeks were aching from smiling, and it wouldn't be half as fun right now if Javi wasn't here. He had the best partner ever.

Ding Dong. Oh shit, they were still naked, and laughing, and very dirty boys.

Hearing the doorbell, Cassandra reappeared in a red Kimono. She gave them a teasing "tisk, tisk" when she noticed they were no closer to being ready to accept visitors.

"Clothes please, good sirs. We don't want to be rude to our kind benefactor."

Chided, Javi and Kevin scrambled to throw on clothes, and tuck themselves in. Kevin, after realizing his boxers were ripped open, tried to fold the flapping fabric over to protect his sensitive bits, before ever so carefully re-zipping himself. When he looked over at his partner, he noticed that each of Javi's shirt buttons were attached to the button hole one down from where they should have been. Pointing it out seemed to get Javi all flustered again.

Kevin realized how much fun it was to see Javi under pressure in this playful situation. He imagined if they had gone to Catholic school together, Kevin would've had hours of entertainment watching Javier squirm under the steely gaze of the nuns. It was fun ribbing him at work too, but their work was so serious and stressful most days. And Javi put on so much guarded machismo at work, for the Captain, for the other officers, for the ladies, for the bigots, for the scumbags. Ryan understood, of course, but seeing him now made him realize how heavy it must be to carry around that much armor. It made him even more glad Javi was there with him. He got a little tenderhearted about his best friend, even _through_ the overwhelming pure stupid happy post-BJ bliss. 'This night fucking rocks!' Ryan mused.

"Knock, Knock!" Jacqui sang through the door. "Care to join us, gentlemen?"

"Just gotta wash up. Be right there."

Kevin clapped Javi on the back, "Come on partner, let's go figure out who murdered our vic, and maybe have a little more fun, too."

Javier followed, still trying to get himself buttoned. "Right behind you, bro."

* * *

_****__**Still crushin on Trish and Selim for their guidance, and JJ for the latest review. **_

_**You know I love the love you been sending me in the PM's, please don't stop, but c'mon and gimme a little Review action, my lovelies. **_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Warnings: for fairly silly and tame bondage. Make yourself an avocado and tomato sandwich, and enjoy! ;)**_

* * *

Chapter 5:

"So, how is it you two know each other?" Stone was ready for answers now that her body and spirit were both fed. Everyone had spent the meal moaning about how orgasmic the food was, how perfectly it paired with the wine. Then, Jaqui regaled them with some amusing anecdotes from the party downstairs, one involving a caged tiger, gypsy punk band, and tattooed aerialist, who had mistakenly gotten too close to both.

Their benign revelry halted when Cassandra asked her first personal question of the night, but the query hung in the air, unanswered.

The soft light in the kitchenette reminded Ryan of Castle's place, so upscale, so civilized, so flattering. Ryan noticed the whisps of hair framing Cassandra's face had reddish highlights, even the lighting seemed to be good at luring out the secrets, nothing like the tawdry fluorescent tube lighting in his and Espo's apartment kitchens.

"Well..." Kevin raised his eyebrow at Espo and leaned anxiously into the table, checking to see who wanted to take the lead on this one. He knew there was a risk that the night would be over when they brought in their 'official business.'

Rationally, Ryan supposed he should be wary, especially since the redheaded Jaqui obviously considered herself Cassandra's protector of sorts. But, in truth, the young detective couldn't help feeling overly trusting of his benefactor Ms. Stone. Maybe it was the blow job talking, but his gut told him that his passport to Cassandra's Fantasyland wasn't expired, just yet.

"He's my partner," Javi cut in. "We're homicide detectives in the 12th precinct."

Their dreamy-eyed host mulled it over, "Ah, that certainly adds a fascinating layer."

But Jaqui narrowed her eyes, "Wait, is your visit here tonight part of official police business?"

"Yes," Javi admitted.

"And No," Kevin placated nervously. "Look, obviously, what just happened here is not part of any police protocol. We are here because we want to be...very much." Javi nodded in agreement with his partner.

"I hear a 'but' coming," Jaqui fished, suspiciously.

Esposito took the bait, allowing a bit too much of his hard ass cop persona into his voice, "But... someone _has_ been murdered, and you and Ms. Stone may have the information we need to make sure that person doesn't get a way with it. Or worse, do it again."

Jaqui glared at the sudden change in tone.

Cassandra marshalled, "Wait, wait, no need to ruin the mood, anyone." Rubbing her best friend's forearm soothingly, she continued, "I think there's a way for us to help, without spoiling the fun, right?"

Stone took the lead. She was very possessive when she felt like the night was headed toward anything that would put a cold distance between her companions. She had enough of that in her 'real' life. Her friends had gone to great lengths to make this night an _antidote _to that kind of toxicity.

"Javi, Kevin, are we suspects?" she began.

Kevin quickly reassured, "No, no, we just need you to fill in the details, maybe make sense of our findings that seem to contradict each other."

"So, we are not in danger?" Stone followed up.

Esposito realized that he had gotten defensive because he misjudged their hesitance for callousness. Now he realized Jaqui was being protective. Remorseful that he had brought fear into the room, Espo dialed himself down to his more tender personal voice again, and answered "No, we would never knowingly put you in danger. Our job is to protect you, from people like whoever did this."

Ryan continued, "And we _can_ protect you, if you'll help us understand what happened."

Stone took in the pair. Javier was even more lovely with apologetic eyes. And somehow Kevin's scrunched up forehead, pleading for another chance, was even more disarming than his original come on. Her matchmaking friends were the best. She made a mental note to buy that Lamborghini for Kimi. She had earned it tonight.

"Fine," the actress agreed. "We can do that. _**If **_you agree to play by my rules."

Kevin played along, "Which are?"

"We're gonna play a friendly card game. You win a hand, you get to ask us a question. We win a hand, we get to ask you a question."

"Okaaaaay?" Javier asked, obviously confused, "What are the rules?"

"Rule One: You both call me Cassie, like my friends. You call me Ms. Stone again, Mr. Esposito, and I'll be forced to spank you."

"Promise?" Javier couldn't resist that set-up.

She pressed on, with only a sly smile toward his remark. "Rule Two: We must agree to address each other only as Javi and Kev... and Jax, of course." She smiled at each of them in turn, winking at her bestie. "No formal names."

Javi shrugged and nodded at the request which was odd, but easily enough fulfilled.

"Rule Three: If at any time, one of us starts to retreat into formalities, the offender will be promptly tied up on the balcony, by their underwear, and will sing _Puff the Magic Dragon, _until such time as he or she can convince the other three of their contrition."

"I'm game" Ryan agreed. This sounded hilarious. Was she serious?

"Javi? Jax?" she pressed.

The redhead promised, "I'm game, as long as everyone _behaves,"_ raising her eyebrows, mostly at Espo.

Esposito's brain was trying to reconcile how he would manage to be a cop, and also himself at the same time. Didn't sound possible. But his partner was there to help, and he trusted Ryan more than anyone.

"Well, this will be different," Espo's features melted into his most golden suavesito smile, "but I'll try anything for you, Cassie." He let her nickname roll around in his mouth, flicking her an almost imperceptible wink.

"That's more like it." Cassie smiled. "Okay, Jax, grab the cards. Let's clear these dishes, and get started."

"What are we playing?" Ryan asked, rubbing his hands together, preparing himself for something sexy like strip poker. He'd been practicing a lot of different poker games with Castle. But with Castle he mostly practiced losing.

"We're playing _Go fish!" _Jax volunteered excitedly. "Do you know how to play?"

The detectives looked at each other somewhat confused, wondering if there were an adult version of the childhood game that they just hadn't heard of.

Ryan took a stab, "Ummmm...I think so. Does it involve a 'pond' and asking the other players for matches?"

Cassie was bright eyed again, "Yep, see, this'll be great. You'll be solving your case in no time. Now deal, Jax." The evening was back on course. And she could continue her long, slow dive into the mysterious Rysposito.

* * *

"I win! My turn for a question." Jaqui bounced in her seat giddily.

This game hadn't been playing out like Ryan and Esposito remembered it from their youth. The elements were the same: 5 cards per player, with a big swirl of cards in the middle of the table, that they 'fished in' when another player told them to 'go fish.' They still asked the other players for matching cards from their hands. They still had to collect all 4 cards of a kind. But for some reason, Jax and Cassie were taking them to the cleaners. At this rate, they'd be playing for a month before they won enough hands to complete their interrogation.

Kevin cringed, "What's your question? I'm almost afraid to ask." Ryan and Espo had already answered how they lost their virginity, their favorite colors, first place they'd fly if they had a private jet, first charity they would donate to if they won the lottery, one non-fictional man they would sleep with if saving the human race depended on it, family, childhood and personal interest questions, and even confessed their own 'deep fried twinkies'.

Meanwhile, the boys had managed to ascertain the basic timeline, all the possible witnesses, the publicist's role in meeting the vic, and background information about two possible suspects. They had only won 4 hands, but luckily Ryan had crafted some very open ended questions that allowed the girls to fill in lots of details. And the women were generous with their answers to the detectives.

After all, the game was stacked in favor of the house. Jax and Cassie exchanged knowing glances, and completed each other's sentences at least once per round. When Cassandra was withdrawn and contemplative, her counterpart was bubbly and engaging. When Jax cut a little too close to the bone with her bold tongue, Cassie smoothed it over for her. They were clearly twin souls, who enjoyed their revelatory game, as much as Castle reveled in perfecting his poker face.

"In your opinion, what is the single most decadent topping you can put on a sandwich?"

"Huh?" Espo was sure he hadn't heard that right.

"You have a sandwich, and its pretty good, but what do you add to it, to make it, like, _amazing_?"

As the game progressed, Esposito began to appreciate Jax much more. Stone's apparently complete love and trust for her was contagious. Her questions were off the wall, but she was 100% committed to them, the way a child asks why her teddy bear can't eat peanut butter. It wasn't an act, she really found value in their answers. Though, it wasn't always clear what, exactly, she had taken away from them.

"Okay, I know." Ryan offered. "Black Tomatoes. I think they are called Black Krims? I had them when I visited my cousin in LA. It's an heirloom variety, kinda darkish, shaped like a normal red tomato, but instead of bright and sweet, the flavor is much more complex, mysterious. Don't get me wrong, at home my favorite is regular Jersey maters. In August, when they're in season, I can eat them on toast with mayo, salt and pepper, and nothing else. The juice is just, 'ugh.'" He released a little pleasurable sigh, letting his eyes lids lower. "But if we are talking decadent, slices of luscious Black Krims for me."

"When were you in LA?" Cassie wondered.

Espo cut her off, "Uh-uh. You gotta win a hand to get another question." He was sure this was gonna take all night, if he didn't move things along. "Avocado, easy. Let's deal those cards."

While Ryan dealt, Cassandra dazed at Javier dreamily, "Of course, avocado." The words dripped off her tongue.

"Well done, Kimi!" Jax concurred.

"Am I missing something?" Javier was wondering if he should be offended by some sort of Latino stereotype, but their tone was sexy and celebratory, not ignorant.

Jax answered matter of factly, "Only men who eat pussy answer avocado. Kimi is getting her Lamborghini for sure, it looks like."

Espo's eyes flew open at the suggestion.

"Why does Tequila Kimi get a Lamborghini? I want a Lamborghini. _**I **_ate the pussy."

Stone cajoled, "Aww, Javi, do you think you're being treated unkindly?"

Espo, still petulant, conceded, "No, but why does _she_ get the car?"

"I'll be happy to answer that, as soon as you win a round, love." Cassie reminded.

"Bro, let's do this. I'm gonna solve this case, _and_ find out about that car. My turn to go first. Ryan, do you have any Queens?"

The women's eyes grew round as saucers, and their jaws dropped in mock disbelief. Kevin wrinkled his forehead, he knew Javi wouldn't go quietly.

"What?" Esposito had no idea what he'd done.

* * *

Thirteen minutes later, Javier Esposito was standing buck naked, with his hands tied behind his back, around the flag pole on the large balcony. Jaqui had volunteered her bra to help secure one of his shoulders to the pole, since the detective had made them chase him, before they could get all his clothes off. He wouldn't concede to going outside, until cold kitchen tongs snapping at his balls, convinced him otherwise. It wasn't cold outside, but the wind was whipping hard enough to blow their hair around and toss leaves up from the street.

"I can't hear you, partner?" Kevin had nothing to do with the tongs, but he was thoroughly enjoying goading Javi, as he stumbled over the multi-sylabic '_Puff, el drag__ó__n m__á__gico, Viv__í__a al lado del mar..."_ Having learned the childhood song en Espanol, Espo couldn't recall the English version under this kind of distracting duress. Kevin marveled that it was really much harder to sing in Spanish. And the rope, that tethered the flag above, was clanging loudly against the pole in a brisk cadence, providing a hilariously noisy counterpoint.

Espo was more than a little concerned about the good neighbors of his fair city getting more than they bargained for when they looked out onto the skyline tonight. Since so many cases had required him to review cell phone videos taken by the ever-rolling cameras of nosy New Yorkers, he prayed especially hard that no one committed a crime tonight anywhere near this building.

Ryan could tell that Espo was getting a little agitated, but from experience he knew that this flavor of annoyance was akin to Esposito's disdain for a racketball racket, that just won't swing through. He was mad at himself, really, that his emotions were so hard to control once they flared up, frustrated that he couldn't always redirect them where he _wanted_ them to go.

Ryan didn't know it, but his partner envied him. The older detective wished he could play it cool whenever it suited him, and go from zero to sixty, and back down again, like Ryan could. Sure, Javier gave himself credit for staying in the driver's seat most of the time, control he had mastered in the special forces. But it was times like this, off-duty, when his temper started brewing without his consent, that he very much wished he could make a hairpin turn, and cool off, before he made an ass of himself. It seemed like life would be so much easier that way. The price of all that sexy Latin heat, was that it burned him, too, sometimes.

Inspired by the wild night wind, the sparkling city lights, and the steamy hunk tied to the pole, both women sprinted wildly around the balcony.

"Ahhhhh-oooooooo" The women tossed their heads back to release howls and barbaric yalps into the night sky, followed by a piece of clothing or two. The pair turned their frenzy upon Kevin, and began to liberate him from some of his clothes, _finally_.

Soon, most of the shirts and pants present were strewn on the floor, or were floating down to the street below, not because sex was imminent, just because "the wind longed to kiss their skin," according to Jax.

Stone took the mostly naked Ryan in hand, intending to lead him to the imaginary dance floor. Unfortunately, Kevin's pants were still ringed around his ankles, and he tripped over his feet, falling into a large decorative urn. Espo chortled at Ryan's pastey blue white legs flailing, as he tried to right himself. When the Irishmen finally got himself vertical, and raised one leg in an attempt to wrest his pants off, he failed spectacularly by falling into the bushes next to the urn. Javi chuckled despite himself.

And just like that, Javi's irritable spell was broken. _'Thanks Ryan.'_ His partner's 'gracefulness' had always been good for a pick me up. With a softened mood, the bound cop could appreciate the rarity of this insane scene. Naked bra bondage, tumbling slapstick, puff the magic dragon, howling-she wolves, his first porn star crush, and the world's best partner, ever. When was this likely to happen again? And why, exactly, had he minded so much, just a moment before?

Espo sang louder, and with more conviction,"En una tierra llamada Honah Lee!"

Kevin and the women danced a ring around Javier in pagan celebration, brushing a few naked limbs across his sculpted buttocks and chest. The revelers couldn't suppress their laughter in their sheer exhilaration.

Esposito forgot all about _'el drag__ó__n m__á__gico'_ when Cassandra pulled the trio in for a tighter embrace around him and the flagpole. With three mostly naked bodies draped around him, he seemed more like the idol, than the captive, now.

Despite Kevin's shredded boxers flapping in the wind, the younger man was wearing the most comfortable broad smile, as he stood close to his partner in this huddled embrace.

With a giddy laugh, Ryan began, "Javi, my best bro, man who I'd take a bullet for, man who I'd share my dream girl with, would you like to make your contrite confession?"

Ryan's unabashed love for his partner was sexy as hell. For both men, Cassie thought it colored in the empty places in their self-confidence. Cassandra had the strong urge to feel Espo as he received Ryan's affection. From behind the pole, she let her hands wander between Esposito's legs.

The shock of the sudden, chilly touch to his testes chased Javier to his tip-toes, his voluminous leg muscles flexed. Espo's voice squeaked in a high soprano, "Sor-ry," setting off another peal of laughter all around.

But Javier's tension melted as he felt Cassie's inner thigh grind against his bound hand. His other hand searched for the warm wet prize that must be nearby. She wrapped her hands around his chest, and writhed again to let him win it.

Her prisoner submitted, "Now that's a little more like it."

* * *

_**So, who's getting the Lamborghini in this crowd, for the most detailed review?**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Warnings: It's time to reflect for a beat, before the high jinks resume. Oh, and Ryan is finally NAKED! Enjoy, lovelies.**_

* * *

Chapter 6

Jaqui wordlessly wandered away from the action developing at the flagpole, ducking inside the atrium at the far side of the balcony. Ryan decided to follow the path of least resistance, and follow the redhead instead, giving his BFF a moment with Cassie. Despite Ryan's newfound comfort with nude admiration of his partner, he wasn't looking for a threesome. He was already awkward enough in bed, without trying to figure out where to put an extra set of hands.

Once Stone and Espo were alone, she whispered, "Are you comfortable, Javi?"

"What kinda a question is that?" Javi shot back, "I'm tied to a ice cold pole, with women's lingerie, all my business exposed to the city of New York, with a handful of my favorite porn star's pudenda. I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to be feeling, but I'm pretty sure '_comfortable_' isn't the word to describe it."

"Would you like me to untie you?"

Javi answered, "Yeah!" half impatient, half unsure.

"You were a very good sport, love," she soothed, wrenching the knot out of the briefs binding his hands, dismayed to find that her little game had rendered them somewhat useless as underclothes.

"I know that wasn't your game," she congratulated, "but you rolled with it just the same."

Javi couldn't tell if she was patronizing him. He certainly didn't _feel _like he had rolled with it. He felt like he was in danger of boiling over, during pretty much every moment of it.

And worse, he couldn't really explain to himself why. Once he started seeing red, it was hard to find the logic lever sometimes. But he madly groped for it now.

He wrapped Cassie's discarded dress around his waist for a pareo, and took himself to the balcony's edge, gripping the rail. Studying the city lights, Espo hoped they would realign into some kind of answer for him.

The straining muscles in Javi's arms and back rippled, in a criminally distracting way, but Cassie managed to stick with him.

"Oh, Javi, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." his voice betrayed a different reality.

She tucked herself behind him, close enough to show support, but far enough to respect his attitude.

He shyly admitted, "Maybe I don't want to play naked, dragon-song bondage right now, that's all," still scrutinizing the maze of lights on the streets below.

"Okay," she agreed easily.

Suddenly agitated again, Javi challenged, "Okay?"

"Sure. You didn't think this was compulsory, did you?" She offered his mangled briefs as a peace offering.

Javi, suddenly a little fearful that he'd shot himself in the foot, again, wrapped his hands up her shoulders, and pulled her in close.

"But, I don't want to leave."

"Good, I don't want you to leave." She stated matter of factly.

His slight squint, and characteristic head tilt, begged her to clear up his confusion.

"You are in charge of you, Detective Esposito," she annunciated the long syllables of his formal name, punctuating them with a combination of respect, silliness, and confirmation that the game was concluded.

Stone continued, "At no time, did I ask you to give up your sovereignty. This may have been _my_ game, but it's only fun if you _agree_ to play along with me."

Javier's mind spun out. Would he ever be able to read women? At least enough to hold down a relationship? Apparently, the mega-release earlier in the night, combined with a litany of personal reflections during the card game, had dropped him into a raw emotional state, which exposed the nerve of this long-running frustration in his life. He could track a potential mate's lust quotient from a hundred yards, but that was as far as his detective skills would go with women.

Fuck if it didn't make him crazy to feel so helpless in the face of his inadequacy. He just wished there were some kind of boot camp to learn this shit, like he had for the military and the force. He wasn't afraid of hard. He'd take hard, over enigmatic, any day. He just needed something laid out for him.

Espo had lucked out in the beginning of the night. Stone demonstrated her intentions with crystal clarity, and luckily, they mostly matched his own. But now, he felt self-consciously adrift. Without the urgent hard-on to guide his purpose, he wasn't sure what was okay to do. It made him want to retreat, and claw onto her, at the same time.

Cassie indicated the reclining deck chairs nearer the suite, facing the skyline. "Why don't we just sit down?"

Javi, so grateful for a direct, transparent request, dropped himself down in the chair, and pulled her onto his lap.

Her wide smile, at this affectionate little gesture, encouraged him to fasten seat belt arms around her waist and squeeze. He might not know what to say, but he knew he wanted to hold onto her.

When she leaned back, and wiggled herself into his thickly padded layers of muscle, she noticed that a few stars were becoming visible in the sky, an exceptionally rare sight over the roaring visual noise of the city.

Her surprise stole a childlike, "Look, stars!" from her, before she could think of anything witty, or guardedly safe to follow it up with.

In that moment, Espo glimpsed the pre-sex-symbol Cassie, and surprised himself with the fierce protectiveness that dilated in his chest. He pulled her back to recline against him again, hoping that some of the unadulterated feeling would just seep into her skin through osmosis, without him having to explain it.

For both, the embrace was so, well, _nice_, un-complicatedly nice, un-needing of an explanation nice. Javi prayed that they could just stay there for awhile, without words, without the fear of ruining it with whatever lame, lug-headed answer popped into his head. He usually wasn't quite this tough on himself, but this wasn't a very usual night, was it?

Meanwhile, Cassie was sinking into the deep pool of sensation from so much skin contact with Javier, who was obviously in a very different mood than their last embrace. She dipped back into a warm lagoon, tropical, lush, still, and consummately tension-releasing. The surface of the water slipped up her shoulders to lick her neck. Every limb under the water's surface, felt suddenly buoyant, rising from within itself. The chitter of birds, left no empty spaces for bothersome thought. She could float, with a thankfully empty mind, in undulating sensation.

The purring sound of a wordlessly languid tune kept time passing. Was Javi humming in her ear? Or were her sensory synapses over-firing as usual? She found this meditation too nourishing to abandon for the sake of an investigation, certainly more healing than anything she had accomplished cross-legged on her yoga mat. She intended to stay here as long as circumstances allowed, hoping that it would be long _enough, _that the effects of this fortifying process would be portable come tomorrow.

Eventually, Cassie's revery was interrupted by Espo's light snore in her ear. The thrill of his mundane, vulnerable cuteness rose tingling up her middle. 'Aww, he fell asleep,' she explained to herself. 'He felt that safe, that sated, that sweet with me?' Cassie savored it. Her station, and distaste for longterm monogamy, rarely allowed her moments like this, especially with a man as earnestly_ real _and strivingly _good_ as Javier.

Cassie cast her eyes around looking for something to cover him with. She spied a bedspread, just inside the sliding glass door behind them, and moved quickly to fit it around him, before the night air could poke him awake. She indulged in a long look at his sleeping form, before she laid the lightest kiss on his temple.

Even though Stone would be keeping this moment locked up in her vaulted memories, the sentimental twinge in her chest spurred her to desire her missing compatriots company. She wanted to squeeze Jax right now, nothing would be real for Cassie until she did that, anyway.

* * *

Kevin, clasping the shreds of his boxers, nervously peeked inside the atrium door, but was relieved to find that Jaqui was the only one inside.

"Hot bubbles!" Jax wriggled herself in the gurgling water, moaning in hot tub ecstasy. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought that the hotel provided their own mermaid to go with the ultra luxurious tub. With the supple undine waves rippling up her spine, Jax barely looked human. "Hot bubbles, hot bubbles…" she continued to murmur to herself.

"What celebrity rooftop orgy would be complete without it?" Kev asked sardonically. Ryan was thinking that it was Espo's turn to give him a pinch, no way anyone would believe him about tonight, even if he wasn't sworn to secrecy.

The atrium was an experiment in opulence. Kevin rattled off a mental checklist of the elements that made him feel outta his league here. '_Chandelier, __overstocked minibar, some kind of heated stone floor,__oversized HD screen, white leather lounge,__indoor fire pit. Plus, there__'__s a row of remote control __buttons __for unidentified gadgets lining __the jacuzzi console __that__'__s as long as Jacqui's legs, and that__'__s saying something. Is that a pool table at the other end? Damn, it sucks to be valiant and underpaid, well, except for tonight. Tonight, the perks__are coming to two of New York's men in blue, with interest. If Javi wasn't so busy collecting some of those perks, __he__'__d be giving me a fist bump, right now__._'

After sinking into the very large, very clean, rectangular pool of water, Kevin reemerged with a much clearer head. Weird. Hot tubs usually had the opposite effect on him, but this one felt different, more tranquil. He leaned his ears back into the water, crossed his ankles, spread his arms wide, and bobbed to the surface, floating effortlessly.

Jax replied to his quizzical look, "It's salt water...from France."

"Of course, it is." Kevin gave into the sheer absurdity of Stone's pay grade.

As he floated, he tried to picture his future self at the precinct next week. He told himself the next time he was hunched over paperwork, with that all too familiar knot of discomfort seizing up his back, he would be coming back here to float, in his mind at least.

He wondered if Castle had one of these things hidden somewhere, maybe on the roof of his building? Or in the Hamptons? He wondered how he might bring it up, without raising suspicions, about the idea's origins.

Oh jeez, keeping all this from Castle and Beckett was gonna be close to impossible, if they got a whiff of it. And it wasn't like he could just avoid the conversation altogether. They would need to be debriefed. He and Espo would need to rattle off all the intel they had just collected, without a hint of anything but a run-of-the-mill canvass and interview. Ugh! He decided to put that thought out of his mind, total buzz kill.

Instead he brought his mind back to tonight, Cassandra, Javi, Jaqui, the party downstairs. This was the closest he'd ever come to a threesome. He realized he didn't know where all of his clothes had landed, probably something in the police handbook that prohibited that, specifically.

It was hard for him to get used to how relaxed and trusting he felt. Why didn't he feel like this more often? Obviously, it was part of his job to be guarded at work. But what about his time off, did he _**ever**_ relax enough to feel this good? He couldn't think of any examples. Probably, the end of Madden night at Javi's was the closest, after he'd drank his limit. It occurred to him that that was kinda pitiful.

The feeling he had now was more than loose, he felt restored. He wasn't the defenseless Jello blob that had wobbled out of the bedroom a few hours earlier. Now, he felt like he had been taken apart, piece by piece, cleaned out, reconditioned, and reassembled in perfect health. He couldn't imagine how he could remanufacture this feeling for himself in his everyday life, though. He wanted very badly to remember it, so he could mull it over. A big part of him wanted to believe that money and celebrity weren't required to get to this excellent internal state again.

Forty minutes later, the rebuilt Kevin Ryan emerged from the tub, naked, dripping, and exuding more confidence in his body than he'd felt in years, maybe ever. He ran his fingers along his scalp to smooth his hair, and took a long slow stretch, reached his arms overhead, bowed to one side, then the other to feel into all the places in his back where the pain had vanished. He even arched backwards without wincing.

"Fantastic" he breathed, examining his limbs to see if he looked as different on the outside, as he felt on the inside.

Jaqui couldn't look away from the hypnotic rivulets making their way down from his hair, between his shoulder blades, into the small of his back, over his impossibly picturesque derriere, through his matted leg hair, darkening the porous stone floor beneath him. A sharp hissing sound rose from each drop on the heated stones, as their edges converted to steam. To Jax, Ryan's lithe figure, and angelic skin, seemed a little too good to be true, like he was only a reflection on still water. She felt sure he would vanish in the ripples, if she dared touch him.

"Wanna towel, loverboy?"

Just as Jax had hoped, he turned toward her, revealing his boyishly unmarked chest, and more water trailing through fair hair. She motioned toward the rack on the far side of the atrium, and settled in to enjoy watching him walk past her.

Watching Ryan rub himself dry proved instructional. It revealed which parts of his body he took for granted, and which he took extra time and care to pat dry. When he wrapped the soft white towel around his waist, it hung low on his hips, exposing _the_ most delicious line on his body- that ridge of muscle above the hipbone, where his abs pour into his navel.

Kevin's muscles were subtle, not bulging like Javier, but somehow that made his navel look even more intimate and vulnerable. Jax would wager that Kevin wasn't the type to walk around shirtless very often. Her thoughts cursed the cruelty of it, '_Pity the loss to wome__nkind__everywhere, and menkind, for that matter, because he could undoubtedly turn a few__'__._

Kev wondered aloud, "Do you do this everyday? The water, I mean...No wonder Cassie is so ageless."

The expressive bend in his boyish features started to push his 'cute factor' off the charts. Jax began to feel a little uncomfortable with the twinge of desire rising through her midsection. Although she adored looking, she had strict self-imposed limits, that were drawing dangerously near at the moment.

Luckily, for Jax, an overly-dramatic voice floated in from behind Kevin, shifting the mood.

"You are too kind, Mr. Ryan." Stone was dressed in her Kimono again, wisps of her hair, wet, from another shower. Kevin turned, surprised to hear Cassie addressing him so formally, even in jest.

"Javi has called off the game," she explained, obviously a little disappointed.

"Is he okay?" Ryan asked with an apprehensive crinkle in his brow, "Did he lose his cool?"

Cassandra crossed the room to her BFF, "No, he's lovely. I left him taking a little nap out there, but I covered him up with something cozy. I figured he deserves the rest." She put her arm around Jax, and gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek, reconnecting. For few moments, the women exchanged some whispers out of Kevin's earshot.

* * *

Once the giggling had died down, the still wet Irishmen addressed Stone, "Can I talk to you a moment?"

Ryan needed to share something, something that couldn't wait another minute, no matter where this night was going, or if she would end it, now that she'd had her fun. He brought himself close enough that Cassandra could see the sincerity in his eyes.

"Cassie, Ms. Stone, I can't thank you enough for tonight. My partner and I, well... we see some shit. Things I never wanted to see. Things that can make it difficult to just be a normal person, even when we aren't on the job. But tonight, well, I've never seen Javi so happy." Ryan's eyes filled with gratitude and selfless concern for his partner.

"And I feel better than I have in years." He placed his hands on her arms to assure her this wasn't some kind of line. "That's because of you, and you, Jax." Tipping her drink at him, Jaqui smiled when he caught her eye, just before she ducked out the door, a bundle of wet towels over her arm.

The very intentional grasp of his hands and eyes, immediately took Stone back to the moment when she first met this young, eager detective. Just as then, her head swam, the lights seemed to refocus on different details, the situation seemed somehow simpler when he focused his keen intent like this. As if all the world's distractions, and uncertainties, were swept from her view. The only word that seemed to resonate with the feeling was 'decluttered.'

In Ryan's embrace, the images confronting her looked oddly more like a Pottery Barn magazine, with carefully chosen details, for clearly identified purposes, and nothing extraneous. Lived in, but not messy. By contrast, she would equate her current lifestyle to a month old copy of Rolling Stone, perhaps found in a doctor's waiting room - great content, but worn and missing a few pages.

She clamped her hands onto his elbows, to assure he wouldn't let go. She was suddenly terrified that as soon as he released her, she would feel like a lesser person, a confused and distracted person, a morally inferior person. And maybe that was cheating, but if she had any hope of finding this kind of clarity again, for herself, she would need to study it more, to grok it fully.

"Kevin?" she asked, still clouded by sensation.

"Yes, Cassie."

"I need to ask you something important."

"Of course," his eyes betrayed nothing but openness and trust, "What is it?"

"Actually two things"

"Shoot."

"The first is..." She kissed him full on the mouth, with all the urgency of a bright-eyed teenager. She almost knocked him over with her enthusiasm, she was so eager to dive deeper into this exchange.

But she wasn't prepared for what she found there. Clear as day, she saw an image of _**herself,**_ outlined in bright precision, a surprisingly flattering portrait of Cassie Stone at her best, glowing, generous, and warm-hearted. Her mind raced, trying to squeeze the image into something that made sense.

She'd tested the bounds of her gift before, with a wide range of strangers. The experiences had run the gamut from distasteful to fascinating, but she'd never seen _herself_ in any of them. The variety of images had been beautiful, exotic, bizarre, hilarious, so many things, but _never_ personal.

Her eyes flew open in shock. She was even more desperate to know him now, and nearly tackled him with her kissing exuberance.

But Kevin wasn't responding to her urgency. She pulled away slightly to check his reaction, suddenly terrified that he had lost interest, that the window to this unique opportunity was closing, before she could even get inside. His naturally unassuming nature had given no indication that something had changed for him, but she was suddenly aflood with anxiety.

Her throat caught a stab of rejection when she discovered his brow, furrowed in concern. _'Fuck, he isn't into it,_' surprising herself with just how upsetting this news proved.

"I'll take that as a 'no,'" she tried to recover quickly. Her well-practiced self control seemed unable to kick in. In an unexpected reflexive panic, she raced to the restroom to hide. It was totally illogical, but she couldn't get hold of her disappointment, and the irrational shame burning her cheeks.

Ryan chased after her, "Wait, Cassandra."

The door slammed in his face.

"Cassandra, please come out." He banged on the door. "Cassie, please."

* * *

_**I hate cliffhangers! I**__**'**__**m so sorry to leave it here. Post a review and kick me into posting Chapter 7 asap. **_


	7. Chapter 7

_**This chapter is my attempt to explain how Ryan can eventually end up with Honey-milk, without exploding from pent up sexual tension.**_

_**It**__**'**__**s entirely possible that my fellow Castle fans may perceive this as slightly AU or OOC for Kevin, but to me, it**__**'**__**s the only way to believe that canon has a shred of credibility, and explains his vamp girlfriend, acceptance of Jenny**__**'**__**s appearance in the black book, and a host of other ways that Kevin is too sexy for his canon life choices, in my ever so humble (and possibly twisted) opinion. **_

_**Warnings: This may be a more ambitious attempt at character development than my novitiate prose allows. (My Ryan muse is awfully demanding, apparently.) Fingers crossed I can keep you with us, until the laughs and bromance return in Chapter 8.**_

* * *

Chapter 7:

Oh fuck, he's ruined it. All that worry that Espo's temper would screw them over. And he was the screw up waiting to happen. Fuck. He didn't even know what he was supposed to be apologizing for. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He paced in front of the locked door. Praying for a miracle. Praying that he wasn't going to be walking home in this towel. Praying that this wasn't how she would remember him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the restroom door…

Oh fuck, she's ruined it. All that precious clarity, her chance to feel clean, and spacious, and incorruptible for a few stolen moments. To find out what in the world it meant to see her reflection inside him. That was supposed to be the prize at the bottom of this cracker-jack-box of a night. All that orchestration, Jaqui's sweet gift to her, Ryan's sweet intentions, her oh-so-sweet plan for what lay ahead, she'd ruined all of it. She knew better. Why was she so flustered? She must look like a spoiled brat diva, locking herself in the restroom. Was this how he would remember her?

* * *

Cassandra pulled the door open a crack, to see if he was still on the other side.

Ryan leaned heavily into the door jam, having gathered his charm together, sooner than she could.

His voice strained in awkward discomfort, "Am I missing something? I thought, you and Javi. I mean...didn't he?"

Just to prove how off-balance she was, Cassandra's mind raced to the conclusion that he was rejecting her because Javier had staked his claim first. '_He thinks I'm sloppy seconds! Damn, Puritans! Damn, Catholic school! __How dare he__!'_

She slammed the door in his face, again.

The kind of black and white moral distinction dominating her fears in that moment, were a distant memory in her life by this point, but somehow in her nervous flailing-tween state it seemed all too real, and her brain was fooled.

Why couldn't she screw her head on straight? Tonight's plan wasn't terribly original. Jax and Cassie had figured out over the years that there was a natural rhythm to Stone's year. Months of working and promoting a film, were best followed by a night of peak human connection, like this one, before Stone retreated into her secluded, hermit-like life for three to eight months, to replenish herself.

During those breaks, Stone's main hobby was trekking through the planet's wisdom traditions, trying on varied spiritual practices, taking pilgrimages, questioning gurus, and the like. She was no disciple, only one-third of her time was spent buying into anything, while the remaining two-thirds kept her skeptical feet firmly planted, in her ultra-modern life. But Stone found pushing her own limits a fascinating pastime, in lieu of auditioning, and subsequently warring with, potential life partners.

So, a night like tonight was her best chance to gather enough savory human connection to sustain her for the next six months, during the long desert walkabout, and mountain ranch retreat ahead of her. The feelings and images she had collected on previous encounters had held a wealth of fascinating material about her world, that she could mine, bit by bit over her months in solitary. It seemed, Cassie could more easily hold onto her connection to the human race, during long stretches of isolation, if she began the evening with a total stranger. Somehow, the further the distance the pair had to travel to intimacy, the more she felt tethered to the greater human experience.

Jax called it her Pisces lap, when Cassie swam way out of her comfort zone to commune with a heterogenous soul. Luckily, Jax could read danger in people as easily as her tarot cards, and while it rarely seemed to help the redhead out in her own life, it was a godsend for Cassie.

But the moment Stone had glimpsed herself inside Ryan, the purpose of the evening had been turned on it's head.

Instead of reaching out to _his_ experience, Ryan had, perhaps unwittingly, reached into hers. The possibility of seeing _herself,_ as lucidly as she was able to see others, was supremely motivating for Stone. She had never been able to shine the light of her gift inward. Instead, she fumbled around in the dark, just as blind, and desperate for answers, as everyone else trapped in the human condition.

But perhaps, tonight, with Kevin, all that would change. Perhaps their union would give her the insight that her fasting, meditating, studying, whirling like a dervish, and other disciplines, hadn't offered.

For Cassie, the stakes of tonight's game had been raised.

* * *

Finally, Stone realized that she had slammed the door in Ryan's face for a second time. '_Wow, that was rude. Pull it together, Cas!_'

She opened the door again, hoping she could still reverse the effects of her boorish behavior, "I'm sorry, Kevin."

Ryan twisted his features, as if it physically pained him to broach a subject so socially taboo. "I don't want to upset you. But you kissed me? um... what I mean to say is, I thought you... I mean I know you asked us both to stay, but I kinda thought, I mean, after the bed... and the pole,... I mean, didn't you kinda chose _Javi_, after all?"

Damn! He was achingly adorable. She was only half listening.

Then she blurted, "Oh. Oh! ...Oh, you thought?" Now, it was her turn to stammer like an idiot.

Kevin continued the halting conversation,"Is it?..Cause I'm okay... Really. I just…," communicating mostly with his crinkled forehead.

Cassie interrupted, "But, you don't think...I mean couldn't you tell?" When she heard herself, and recognized that they were _**both**_ mumbling like half-wits, she broke into self-conscious laughter.

Ryan laughed with her, even though he couldn't tell what the joke _was_, exactly.

"You're nervous!" she shared her epiphany. "You're not disgusted. You're nervous!" She left the bathroom, and laced her hands behind his back.

"And what's even better, _I'm_ nervous!" Cassandra marveled over the revelation, "I'm a squirmy school girl over you, Kevin Ryan."

With fingers laced in his, she lead him over to the lounge, explaining, "I couldn't possibly have enjoyed Javier, if you weren't there."

When they stood in the center of the room, flanked by the fire pit and divan, she drew him in, curled her arms over his shoulders, pressing what little moisture remained on his chest into her own body, popping cool tingles through the thin silk that separated them.

Cassie brought her lips an inch from his ear to whisper, "I've been waiting to be alone with you, all night."

Finally, Kevin's face brightened with the light of recognition, then relief, then astonished disbelief. He felt like an inexperienced kid in her presence, a young nobody, especially now that they were alone. She had just thrown the the heft of her larger than life personage directly at him. '_Her thoughts were preoccupied with __**me**_?' Didn't seem possible that the avenue of obsession he'd painstakingly built, could possibly open up, even a tiny lane, heading the other direction.

Her giggle dissolved Kevin into an echo of nervous laughter, mostly because he had no idea what to say.

* * *

Luckily, a plan was beginning to form in Cassie's mind. She wouldn't dare come at him directly, again, for fear that she'd see or feel something she couldn't handle. But if she wanted to avoid another disastrously spastic outburst, she had to think of something fast. They couldn't just stand there giggling forever.

"Kevin, I have an idea. Will you humor me, and play along?"

"Ugh, sure. What should I do?" After the bomb she just dropped, Ryan was twice as relieved _not_ to be driving, since most of him hadn't caught up to believing it, anyway.

"Just gimme a minute. Sit down, over there, okay?"

He settled into the bench in front of the fire pit, re-tucked his towel, leaned back on his arms, and reminded himself to breathe.

When she returned to the restroom, Ryan needed to rescue his overactive brain out of an abyss of anxious waiting. He set himself to the task of imagining the algorithmic curve that controlled the dancing lights in front of him. It had taken him a full three minutes to realize that the softly glowing amber-blue flames were manmade, as they ran over the bed of remarkably convincing faux coals. As his eyes searched for the glitch in the matrix, that would reveal the beginning of a looped pattern, he marveled over the lengths that humans will go to, in order to recreate _**and control**_ naturally occurring beauty.

* * *

In the restroom, Cassie weighed her alternatives.

Her plan was a leap of faith, which she wouldn't normally attempt with a stranger. But she needed something comfortable and familiar from her bag of tricks, to ground her, something that helped her feel in control of herself, again.

She might have guessed that Kevin's moral high ground would lead him to frown upon all the elaborate pretense that her plan would require. She certainly had the stack of zealot hate mail, to support her claim that 'the faithful' were predisposed against her more imaginative choices. And her shunned goddess namesake sometimes hung a little uncomfortably around her neck, when it came to distinguishing the perceived value of truth and lies.

But all night, Kevin had demonstrated himself to be the best kind of dichotomy. On the one hand, he held himself to impossibly high standards of polite conduct. And he chose upstanding, almost cliche, straight-and-narrow life choices. Obviously, his pledge as a public servant was a commitment to redeem the ugliest of human failings. It spoke volumes, especially since Ryan talked about it without a shred of ego. She wondered how he processed it all, especially since Espo claimed Ryan didn't drink enough alcohol, to even be considered a real Irishmen.

On the other hand, Ryan's eyes were absent of any holier-than-thou zeal. In fact, he seemed utterly uninterested in passing judgement on others for their fleeting diversions, or on himself, for that matter, for his own open mindedness.

All four of tonight's players had admitted a fairly wide range of taboo predilections during their _Go Fish_ confessions. But Kevin's reactions proved nothing but supportive, compassionate, understanding, or at the very least, openly curious.

Maybe it was his youthful glamour, but Ryan's go-with-the-flow nature appeared to be more than passivity. Cassie read it as steadfast protection for his companions' dignity. And it _**did**_ make her feel safer than she usually did with strangers, exactly as Kevin had promised, in his opening overture to her.

Jax certainly could pick 'em.

* * *

Kevin turned when he heard Stone open the bathroom door, and noted that she had made some 'adjustments_'_. It looked to Ryan like she had tied her hair up in a ponytail, securing it with the belt of her kimono, which no longer needed a belt, since it was now tied in a knot over her midriff, revealing white lace boy shorts, and suggesting a little bit of everything underneath them. The addition of tiny black reading glasses, made it more difficult for Ryan to make eye contact, as she was purposely looking past him, into the distance.

She made her way to the end table near the divan, sat down facing obliquely away from him, and crossed her legs. Sitting up straight, and looking attentively ahead, she folded her hands in her lap. Kevin searched for his cue, but got caught up in the miraculously different air she had created. She was a chameleon, he barely recognized her, under this new carriage.

Suddenly, she raised her hand, her eyes addressing an apparently invisible third party. In a shockingly non-Cassie voice, she volunteered "Sister Ignatius, I'd be happy to help Kevin with his lab, if you'd like." The innocence and conviction in her intonation harbored no hint of mocking, even when she followed up with, "I believe he needs help with his _covalent bonds_."

Ryan's mind was invaded with the all too clear image of a young Ms. Stone, already an international sex symbol, sitting next to him in a half-empty lecture hall, under the watchful eye of the implacable Sister Ignatius, who droned on about 'ions' and 'cohesion.' And, it was no surprise to Kevin, that the actress was giving him a hand job under the desk. With stunning detail, he saw her hands wrapped around his member, the sound of the desk thudding every third stroke, coupled with his own stifled whimpers as he struggled to maintain the illusion that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

Apparently, one part of him really liked this image, cause it was fighting its way out of the towel wrapped round his waist. The slightest squeak from Ryan's throat alerted Stone that it was time to move forward with the scene.

She approached, "Can I sit here?"

Ryan stared blankly at her request, still fan geeking on how she had transformed her gait to walk over to him.

She continued her lines, "How about I see what you have so far?"

Kevin crossed his legs in embarrassment, when he realized that the stiffness under the towel was the only thing his body was 'working on' at the moment.

But Stone took Ryan's hand as her prop, drawing her fingers over it to study imaginary equations.

She glanced over her glasses to Ryan, but _**not**_ to break character, just to shyly smile. She was flirting, like an all too believable young woman, who had nothing but virginal interest in her study partner. "You know, I noticed you missed P.E. today?"

Ryan finally put it together. Cassandra Stone was friggin' roleplaying him! His mind screamed, _'__Lottery ticket!__ Lucky Bastard Award __-__ won.__ Espo officially owes me paperwork.__' _

Kevin's mind exploded along the edges. Firstly, how did she know that his ultimate turn on was an erotic roleplay? He hadn't revealed it as his deep fried twinkie, mostly because he didn't think of it as a vice.

Imaginative scenarios balanced out Kevin's stress level, and put his overactive mind to constructive use. Without it, he started over-thinking things, and gave himself insomnia. He had always done it, and at this point, it was just something he consumed as normally as coffee, the sports pages, or his multivitamin, a daily staple of his intellectual needs.

But this was not an anonymous phone sex operator, on the other end of a burner phone, who awkwardly called herself Sandy or Cas, at his bequest. This was the_ authentic_ article.

Now, he grappled with the double exposure of Cassandra Stone's actual personality, as he came to know it over the course of the evening. And that would have been plenty to make him come, at the first suggestion of a fantasy scenario.

But Ryan could hear his mind screeching, as he struggled to square himself with the fact that the role she slipped into, had doubled back to him. By becoming the girl next door, Stone became someone much more like _**him**_ in her inhibitions, someone well within his reach.

Yep, it was gonna be a fucking miracle if he could hold his load, until she touched him.

Kevin tried to play along, "Really?" But his voice trembled with the effort it took to wrest his mind away from the hundreds, maybe thousands, of pleasurable scenarios he had created for her, in his mind over the years. He tried to study the details right in front of him, to stay present.

Cassandra full on _blushed_, before she continued, "Well, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I watch you sometimes. Did you know, that before you throw a lay-up, you lick your lips in concentration?" She leaned in, "and I sometimes imagine you are preparing to kiss me, with that same zeroed focus."

He tried to answer, "Is that so? I never…" she cut him off with a quick elbow jab to the ribs, and forceful "Shush, sister's coming. Sit up straight." Ryan reflexively jumped, with the sit-at-attention-and-look-innocent drill, still alive and well in his muscle memory, but now rarely used unless he and Espo were pranking Castle, or surfing porn at Tech officer Tory's workstation.

Ryan watched her out of the corner of his eye, while she readjusted her glasses, and trailed her eyes across the room following her invisible schoolmarm.

Stone mimed a reading of her own palm hand notes, until her eyes glanced out the side of her glasses, whispering with a gossipy lilt. "My lab partner told me that Sarah Jane still has a crush on you, ya know. She seems to think that you'll be asking _her_ to prom. I told her that's crazy," Her voice drew itself into the same conspiratorial tone Kevin had used on her earlier, "I'm the one who most appreciates watching you walk down the hall, and the way you rub the back of your neck, when your not sure about your answer in class," Her confession skated the edge of vulnerability and lust, "how much I want those hands to knead _**me**_ like that."

"_Think of baseball, think of baseball. Do not come yet, dumbass!__" _he scolded, trying to counteract her over-effectiveness.

As he groped for something appropriate to volley back, she nonchalantly glanced behind herself, for the covert opportunity to whisper in his ear. "Meet me at my house after school today, okay?" Her head motioned to the swank cream colored leather divan, before she rose and walked in that direction.

Pretending to pay attention to the fake blackboard ahead of him, he shifted his now uncomfortable, seated position, and breathed back, "K."

Before he rose and followed after her, taking pains to hide how ill-fitted his towel had become, he chided himself,

'_Hold it together, Kev, you can do this. Pace yourself._'

* * *

After Kevin sat down, Cassie straddled his lap, moving fast enough that he would have no chance to protest. She bit into his angel-fine earlobe, explaining, "My parents are out of town for the weekend." Kevin dug his fingers into the plush leather, grasping for his self-control.

She kissed his neck, sucking hard enough to mark him. "And I know we agreed that we would wait, until after exams…"

She bit his shoulder, eliciting a moan from the already defenseless Ryan, "But, Kevin, I feel so safe with you…"

She ate the crease where his shoulder met his neck, sucking hard enough to brand him for a week. He rolled his head away, yielding to the pleasure.

Kevin panted, "There's really no reason to wait…" His head lolled backward in ecstasy, nodding in full agreement that 'waiting' sounded like needless torture.

She continued to suck a dark line of broken corpuscles around his collar bone, cementing their small future connection, however ephemeral, by giving him at least a fortnight of reminders in the mirror.

Cassie brought her forehead to his, and dared to look into his azure eyes, now dark with desire, testing her plan, _and_ her resolve. Her heart rose to the crest of a roller coaster, teetering at the brink of falsehood and honesty, she shakily released her grip on the safety brake, admitting,

"You make me feel like I never have, with anyone before you." Cassie hoped her performance was enough to mask the fact that she was actually baring her soul, and damn near terrified by it.

Fully aware that she risked losing herself, and her role, in the sensation, Cassie brought her open mouth to his. She gave into a long, enveloping kiss. His responsive lips and sharp taste, sent a waterfall of energy pouring down her body, pooling between her thighs. She rubbed herself slowly against his _firm_ display of appreciation through the towel.

She was totally drawn into the role now, not really planning out what she would say next. But when Ryan attacked her neck to sink a deep purple mark of his own, one dark enough to haunt her for the coming week, as well, she lost control of her voice.

Without realizing it, she sighed "Will you be my first?"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she worried that they were over the top. That the thought of her as a virgin, would be laughable to him. It would have been laughable to _her_, just an hour ago.

Her face dropped away from his, "I understand if you're not ready..." she tried to give him an easy out, and save herself the embarrassment.

Kevin took a beat to savor it, and considered his response options. Slutty? Innocent? Naughty? Nerdy? Joc? There were a lot of possibilities. Unknowingly, he let her stew in her fears of rejection.

Finally, he lifted her chin with his finger, and decided to go with "Cassie, I'd be the luckiest man alive to be your first. On my hardest days, you are the reason I get out of bed. And most nights, thinking of you, is the reason I can drift off to sleep" He had no problem keeping his ultra-convincing straight face, because this was sorta true. He just left out all the jerking off, that accompanied those wakings and sleepings.

* * *

When he finally pushed himself inside her, it didn't feel like he'd imagined. It wasn't risqué or forbidden, or even especially wild or smutty. Maybe the role play was still working on him, maybe it was her eyes locked on his, convincing him that she was utterly present. But she felt like a girlfriend, _his_ girlfriend, one that he had been long-distance dating for years, but had had to wait a *_**really**_* long time, until the moment they could finally be intimate.

He really didn't expect his all-purpose, porn star, sow-his-wild-oats-before-settling-down, one night stand, fantasy girl to feel like 'making love'. He was quite sure he wouldn't last long, having almost come in his towel at least four times, by this point. But while he was inside her, employing all his newfound, hot tub infused energy to thrust into every inch of her, he honestly believed that she loved him. Stupid, huh? But what did it matter? It was his dream girl, he could dream.

* * *

Cassie's instincts were more right than she could have guessed. Merging with Ryan proved to be way more than she could handle. Her neatly wrapped pretenses unwound when he entered her. A white hot stream of light cauterized her chassis.

In yet another role reversal, instead of getting lost in sensation, and losing her grip of outside reality, she was every bit present. Her search for her own image, and increased self-knowledge, was utterly wiped away, and replaced with an all encompassing focus on Ryan. Not the metaphorical Ryan in the sanctuary, but the flesh, and sweat, and restless sinews right in front of her.

She cataloged his every detail, the shadows clinging to every curve hollowed out by his straining abs, the tufts of hair she had tousled out of place, the delicate curves of his young face, the sweet sound of his effort crashing against his lungs, and the cocktail of a dozen emotions washing over his face, as the waves of pleasure and effort collided inside him.

For a few precious moments, she managed to stay totally anchored in the here and now.

Her synaptic overload blurred into waves of abstract light, heat and color. She couldn't speak, and could barely move. She could only shout her desire through her eyes, hold onto him, and pray he would continue. As her brain burned off years of extraneous complications, and sullied delusions, she understood why his kiss had such a unique effect on her. Every stroke consummated her immaculacy.

For a woman who began her career with porn, and had been working inside the vicissitudes of Hollywood for well over a decade, _**purity**_, or even a feeling akin to it, was _**the**_ holy grail.

When he collapsed into the fold of her neck, wearing his most unguarded smile, panting in joyful exertion, Cassie sent one grateful tear to Jax for saving her life, _again_…..This time, when Cassie didn't even know it was in danger of being lost.

* * *

Unlike Espo, who had needed a pinch to convince him that his fantasies had crossed over into reality, Ryan was overcome with certainty that his world had just changed.

He had been searching for something to kickstart this shift, since he made detective. While Ryan had no doubt that he would rise to his responsibilities, unfailingly, even as the risks of the job, and looming full-fledged adulthood, increased. Still, he often felt small inside himself. As the stakes continued to raise, he wondered how he could encompass more internally, so he would be better prepared to take care of everyone around him.

Right now, he knew with utter certainty that the internal 'Empire of Kevin Ryan' had just expanded to include a new fortifying territory.

* * *

_**Thanks for taking that deeper dive with me, certainly the most **__**"**__**outtamyleague**__**" **__**chapter of this story. Now it**__**'**__**s time to swim back to the surface..stay tuned for playful pillow talk with Ryan ;) and Espo**__**'**__**s return. **_

_**Giggly roller coaster laughter to my incredible **__**'**__**strangers**__**' **__**Trish, Selim, BS and JJ for their advice, and to Suz for the ribald review.**_

_**Reviews and PM**__**'**__**s would be so helpful. **_


	8. Chapter 8

**Don't worry folks, we are still safely ensconced in non-slash/het territory. But, I couldn't resist the chance to push the boys' buttons some more. Its what makes the bromance so damn fun for me. Enjoy this little romp through fantasy land.**

**And ten points goes to any reviewer that includes their own scenario for Ryan (or Espo)!**

* * *

Chapter 8:

During pillow talk, Cassie got to see a whole new side of Detective Kevin Ryan.

"...Besides, I've already slept with you, like, a hundred times."

"Do tell" Cassie insisted, her eyes alight. Apparently, now that they knew each other, in the biblical sense, Cassie was suddenly privy to a totally new version of Ryan, playful and uninhibited. She felt like Kevin had just lifted the flap to his top-secret bedroom fort, built of blankets, sheets and kitchen chairs. And she had gained membership to his exclusive clubhouse, a magical, innocent place where only flashlights, S'mores and jaw-dropping stories had any real value.

"Yeah, we've done it everywhere." Ryan propped himself up with his elbow, supporting his head with the heal of his hand. Apparently, he now felt quite comfortable letting her peek into his vivid fantasy life, since not all of it was make-believe anymore.

He stared down at her, and began his litany, while Cassie listened attentively.

"My kitchen counter." Cassie smirked.

"Hood of my car." Oh, this was cute, Cassie smiled.

"Empire State observation deck…of course, but really who hasn't?" Kevin still managed to remain matter-of-fact about his admission, like he was rattling off nothing more taboo than a list of restaurants he had tried downtown.

Cassie played along, "No one _**I**_ can think of."

With her encouragement, he launched into a rapid fire list of 'Kev and Cassandra's Greatest Hits.'

"Captain Montgomery's desk."

Cassie's delight let out a little, "Ah!"

"And the break room, and the morgue, and the elevator at work. It's a nice break from paperwork."

She agreed, "Obviously."

"Thanksgiving dinner table at my folks house," elicited a chuckle from Cassie. He filled in even more details, "I licked cranberry sauce off your nipples. For some reason, my aunt was really happy about that." She couldn't help but burst into a bigger laugh at the confused look on Kevin's face.

"Skydiving in New Zealand."

"Ooo, athletic!"

"Under the bleachers at The Nicks," Ryan exposed, as a matter of course.

She corroborated, "Of course, your duty as a proper New Yorker."

He searched through his mental catalogue for something a little less obvious, "Snorkeling off Kauai."

Cassie's nose scrinched a little, "Huh? How did we manage?"

He admitted, "Yeah, I couldn't get the logistics to work even in my imagination, I think we mostly rode sea turtles instead."

"Naturally," Her face filled again with a barely containable smile, "good choice." What fun, to get a free pass to his inner world.

"There was that peep show in LA". Kevin's face tightened with a tiny hint of something uncomfortable.

Cassie's eyes lit up, thrilled with the potential in this fantasy, "Oooo, I was your private dancer?"

What was his discomfort with this? Maybe embarrassment? Kevin's voice got tighter, "Not exactly. It started that way, but when the quarter went into the slot, and the little screen began to rise, somehow, _**I **_was in the little box wearing black latex shorts, and _**you**_ were sitting in the cramped sticky room, smoking a cigar."

"Bwah! ha ha ha, God, Kev, that's a good one. Lemme run with that a minute." She closed her eyes to paint out the details in her mind, focusing especially on the ubiquitous red light cast on his pale skin, and delectably bare chest. Then, she noticed the curve of his thrift little ass as he bent down, ever so slowly to give her a better look, followed by the stretch of black plastic over his package, when he stood up again. She finished it off with Kevin adjusting a little black bow tie, before giving her a suggestive wink. A naughty sigh escaped her lips.

"Well, take a good long look now, cause that's the only place your gonna see that image. I can promise you."

Kevin shifted gears to something more 'wholesome,' offering, "There was Coney Island."

"Awwww, top of the Ferris Wheel?" she guessed.

"You'd think, but no, I'm terrified of heights. Couldn't get it up there with Viagra." He stared into the imaginary scene ahead of him, "Log flume."

Snapping out of it, he glanced at her sideways, warning, "Don't judge."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she protested, barely controlling her smirk.

He took a deep breath, obviously ready to move on, "Outer space."

"Ah, fantastic. Where?"

"Oh. pretty much everywhere. Inside and outside of space stations, colonized moons, even a whorehouse on a border planet."

"Shiny!" She winked.

He rewarded her with a little kiss on the cheek, for that one. _'Real Cassie __is __**way**__ better than I would__'__ve dared to dream up.__"_

His eyes searched again through the imaginary database in the distance, finally he came up with, "Halloween night."

"Ooo, what did we dress up as?" Her bright eyes curious.

"Actually, I don't remember. You weren't in the mood, you were just really scared, so we laid in bed, on top of the covers, and I held you. We watched out the open window, listening to the sounds of New York at night, for a long, long time." A deep, silent appreciation spread across her face, not only because he remembered this, but because he would share it with her. This was exactly the kind of moment, that her chosen life didn't include. She treasured it, and put it in her memory vault, alongside the image of 'snoring Javi.'

He continued, "If you like that one, we could go way, way back and recall that we sang karaoke in the school talent show. You kept telling me that I'd be great, and not to be nervous."

"And how'd it go?"

He deadpanned, "Oh, it was awful. Unqualified train wreck. My voice cracked in the third verse, and somebody's little sister threw up on stage, during my last chorus."

"Oh, Kev." She frowned sympathetically.

"On a brighter note, you've also walked into about a dozen protocol debriefings, and fucked me over the conference tables." He obviously enjoyed her laugh at this, because he mock-chided, "You're very handsy, and little rough when I'm in uniform. You really oughta watch that," taking her into his arms again.

"Ha! But who can blame me? It's _you!_" She traced her finger around the curve of his hairline, and down his cheek, committing his playful expression to memory. "You un-civilize me, Kevin Ryan!" She gave into his charm. He certainly deserved whatever momentary ego boost she could lend him, after this generously candid display. Even though _**he**_ was obviously the long-time fan, _**she**_ certainly felt like the lucky one, right now.

They talked a long, long time cuddled up on that couch. He didn't tell her everything. But he didn't hold back as much as he'd intended.

* * *

"I should probably check on my partner." Ryan was beginning to worry about Espo sleeping out in the elements, as the hours dragged on.

"Cute socks" Ryan said, standing over the sprawled out Esposito, who was still sleeping off the tequila, and general debauchery, on the balcony lounge chair. Jaqui must have taken pity on him, and put her extra fuzzy, hot pink socks on his feet, probably when she noticed that Espo was a 'kicker,' and couldn't keep his toes inside the blankets.

Espo was still mostly sleeping, in the still mostly dark, wee hours of the morning. His right fuzzy foot poked out of the bottom of the covers. His left bent knee peeked out of the side. And his right arm draped over his eyes, shielding out any possibility of light invading his slumber.

And, of course, he had a raging hard on.

Espo was used to waking up with a painfully hard cock, it didn't really bother him anymore. But it was a bitch to deal with in the service, sharing a bunk with 50 enlisted men every morning. Eventually, they all got to used to it. But each new transfer had to be taken aside. "Here's where we take a leak, here's where we shower, chow is at 19:00, oh, and Special Forces solider Esposito, he wakes up with a giant cock, which he'll need to wax. Don't. Fucking. Stare."

Ryan tried not to be too loud, in case his partner was developing a hangover. "Javi, Javi, we're headed inside, you wanna come? Or you happy out here?"

When he got no response, he shook Javier's shoulder a little. "Espo, yo, bro, you okay?" Ryan noticed part of him waking up through the covers.

After a moment without any answer, Ryan considered which option would best fulfill his BFF duties: wake him? drag him? leave him? add more covers? None seemed full-proof.

Very suddenly, Espo ripped back half his covers, revealing a somewhat crazed look in his eyes.

And growled, "Where is she?"

"Ummmm," Ryan slowly admitted, "in the bedroom shower, I think," not entirely sure if he would regret his honesty.

In a flash, Esposito shot up, and threw his covers over one shoulder, creating a makeshift toga of sorts. With a half-conscious, single-minded look in his eye, he stomped stiffly into the suite door. Ryan thought he moved a little like Frankenstein, and looked nearly deranged in his toga and fuzzy pink footwear.

Ryan heard Cassandra scream in fright when the Espo-monster barged in the bathroom, where she was taking her third shower of the night.

"Oh shit!" Ryan tore in after them. "Espo, don't go crazy now."

Espo's 'crazy eyes' were downgraded to 'very intense' by the time he saw Stone wet in the shower. After the initial shock, Cassandra laughed heartily at Javier's outfit. Esposito didn't speak, he just ripped off his covers, revealing his oversized morning friend, and stepped in the shower, socks and all.

Ryan yelled from behind the shower curtain. "Everything okay in there? Cassie, you alright?"

The sound of her giggles somewhat relieved the anxious detective. He was a little jealous, but still felt okay about Espo, as long as he was in his right mind, behaving himself.

She called back from behind the curtain, "No, Detective Ryan, I'm **not** okay. I need back-up! Stat! Can you please remove that robe, and join us in here?" trying to suppress more giggles.

"Uh..." Kevin was theoretical okay with this, he told himself. But in practice this was a big step, maybe he should just come back later.

Stone stuck her head out of the curtain. "Get in here, now!" She grabbed his hand, and tugged until he obliged, robe and all.

"Well, aren't you a pair of overdressed gentlemen?" Cassie was having way too much fun already, "And me without my muff?"

She cast an assessing eye up and down their forms, Espo on her right, motionlessly getting wet under the spout, and Ryan, on her left, dry at the far end. "I love the footwear, but that robe has got to go." She yanked it off Ryan, and tossed it clear over the curtain rod.

"Soap!" she demanded like a surgeon asking for 'Scalpel.' Ryan passed her the body wash. He was feeling really self conscious, but he told himself not to wig out, and just follow Cassandra's lead.

"Hands!" She poured a generous amount of the slippery stuff, into all three of their hands.

Now singing her commands like a summer camp counselor, she announced, "Me first!" She lifted her hands to the sky, with dramatic flare, but neither of the men moved.

She tried again, "Me first!" guiding each of their soapy hands to her body.

Their first try was pretty lackluster, and they dropped most of their soap before it could suds up.

"Try again! This time with conviction, gentleman." Espo was on board now, he started with her buttocks, and worked around to the front. Then he tried to work his soapy hand between her legs.

Awkward Ryan strategized that he'd have less chance of accidentally touching Javier, if he focused on her breasts. Playing with her nipples was an all consuming task, so he didn't need to think about the giant cock bobbing behind her.

She closed her eyes for just a few seconds. Four hands at once, wow, this was fun! But she kept the game moving, before the sensations could overwhelm her. She had bigger plans.

With her next announcement,"Javi's Next!" Cassie wriggled to the spout side of the tub, and poured out more soap for everyone. Javier was standing less than a foot away from Kevin, his bobbing morning member threatening to brush against the other man at any moment.

Esposito was obviously way more okay with this than his younger, more prudish partner. Javier's tours in the desert, in close quarters with strange men of all stripes, had thoroughly desensitized him to the naked male form.

But when Javi saw the fear in Kevin's eyes, he couldn't help playing it up, not for sexual arousal, mind you, but for this unique opportunity to rib his younger, tender-footed partner. With an unflinching stare, Espo put on his best 'faux innocent' tone of voice, and challenged, "What Kev, don't I get a turn? My chest is dirty. And, I believe, _**you **_have the soap."

From behind, Cassie wrapped both her sudsy hands around Espo's fully erect penis, and began to stroke up and down. He didn't respond outwardly to her touch, tormenting Ryan was too good a game. Instead he continued his staring contest, and just raised a disapproving eyebrow at his duel mate. Ryan, beaten, started rubbing Espo's chest, _very_ uncomfortably. This round went to Javi.

When she pronounced, "Kev's Turn!" Javier and Kevin had to turn themselves sideways to trade places. So, just to be 'safe', Kevin turned his backside toward his partner, and faced Cassie who was standing under the spigot.

Her oh-so-excited eyes began to relax the, now jittery, detective. But Espo was still playing the game. Now from behind, the sudsy Latino shower mate was rubbing down his partner's Irish cream skin, with a little too much soap. And, Kevin thought, a bit too much enthusiasm.

Javi started massaging Kev's shoulders, using all the strength, and gentle deftness, his thick fingers could manage. Then he worked his hands to the knot over Kevin neck. This actually felt really good. Kev always needed a back rub. And Javi was taking it seriously. Strong thumbs rubbed out the ridges of muscle flanking Kev's spine, working downward, slowly, until they found the small of his back.

But just when Kevin started to really relax, and enjoy it, Javi hooked his arm over Kev's chest, for a 'bro hug,' and quipped "Feelin better, partner?" knowing that pulling them this close would inevitably slap his hard cock against Kevin's ass.

Kevin's eyes popped wide open, and he squeaked out a meek little "Yes, thanks."

Was there anything better than torturing Kevin Ryan? Apparently, not for Javier.

* * *

**I can't believe we've almost arrived at our climax in Chapter 9!**

_**And, Caskett fans, thanks to purplangel's goading, I'm planning to post a fun-filled, rated M Caskett one-shot, filled with silly banter and smutty goodness, this weekend, too. (That is, if my head doesn't explode from trying to write dizzying Castle dialog). My hats off to all of you who have written for Rick, without succumbing to the whirlwind between that character's ears.**_

**Uber grateful for Selim and JJ's beta magic, as always.**

**Now, who can tell me which fantasy scenario was their favorite of the bunch? Or better yet, who's got a review or PM with a delicious image of Ryan (or Espo) in a scenario of their own, for me?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello, folks, here we are at the penultimate chapter, almost to our fluffy finish in Chapter 10. Embarrassingly, I****'****m already getting a little fklempt about saying goodbye to Cassandra, Jax, and their world of eccentric luxury. Thanks for taking this ride with me- you all have been stupendous! **

**Now, march your booties back into that shower with our delicious trio. We****'****re not done having fun, just yet!**

* * *

Chapter 9:

"Time's up! Everybody out!" Captain Cassie had a schedule to keep.

Only one hour 'til sun up. And there was still plenty to take care of. She handed both men towels, and ushered them out to the bedroom.

Ryan noticed that the suite had been thoroughly cleaned since they were last there. He rolled his eyes, still unable to shake his pay scale vertigo. '_After hours maid service? Jeez, the lifestyle.__'_

Cassie crossed in front of the bed, toweling off the ends of her hair, offering, "Juice, anyone?" She motioned to the mini bar, where a collection of tall glasses stood, filled with ice and cranberry juice, and garnished with lime. "The ones with umbrellas are spiked," she warned.

Javi wasn't interested; he still had the pressing business of the world's most stubborn wood to attend to. And the shower had only complicated his situation. Kevin wondered how it was even medically possible, for him to still be batting that thing down. He mused if times got tough, Espo could always sell his blood as organic Viagra.

"Cassie," Espo took her arm, interrupting her juice cocktail reverie. In a hushed voice he pressed, "Are you gonna help me out here, or do I need to take care of this myself?"

"Javier, I'd like nothing more, but I need you to do two things for me first."

Understandably impatient, Espo urged, "Which are?"

She offered him her virgin cranberry cocktail, "First, take a sip of juice. You need your strength."

"Easy," Espo downed the whole thing in under three seconds. "Next?"

Her eyes widened at his intensity, encouraged that her plan might just work out, after all. She met Espo's hungry look, "Second, convince him."

Javier cast his eyes to his partner. Kevin stood uncomfortably aloof, trying to absorb himself in a double vodka and cranberry, hoping it would calm some of the nerves that Javi's shower antics had unsettled. Despite, Espo's assessment that Kevin could turn on a dime emotionally, in truth, that really only applied to anger or intimacy. Embarrassment, or nervousness? That was Ryan's undoing.

Espo's omnipresent brow crease folded over on itself, "Convince him to what?"

"Join us, of course."

* * *

"My conference room, now, bro." Espo bullied Ryan back into the steamy bathroom. He searched himself for the pep talk that would circle back on the three rules both men had set at the beginning of the night. Even though Espo was supremely focused on moving things forward, it was a little difficult to think straight, without the benefit of all the blood pooling into his lower half.

Despite his physical urgency, Javier's voice was sympathetic, "Look, bro, I get it. There's no going back from some places. I've never done this either."

Kevin looked up at his partner pensively. He had signed on for this possibility at the beginning of the night, and knew he'd never forgive himself for backing out now. Still, he couldn't find a calm center where he could get a foothold, and he felt more than a touch guilty to be acting so needy right now.

Javier reached out a strong arm, and braced it into Kevin's shoulder, trying to give his confused partner something solid, and familiar, to lean into. With a gentle shake to the shoulder, he tried to jog Ryan into the confidence and swagger he had owned at the beginning of the night. Somewhere in there was the mastermind that made a crazy bet with him on the car ride over, a crazy bet that had proved to be pure genius. Javi engaged Kevin's eyes, making sure he could see that, despite the childish teasing, his very best friend was still with him - one hundred percent.

Espo reassured, "But, listen, if there's anyone who I can trust to get this done, and done right, it's you."

That's all Ryan needed, he knew all the pieces would fall into place, if his partner had his back. He felt fairly invincible, whenever Espo had his game face on.

"So, here's how it's gonna go down, I start, you watch, you get yourself in 'fighting form' " Espo motioned toward Kevin's very flaccid state. "I give you the sign, you bring your A game, I step aside. When you wanna trade, you lemme know."

Espo reinforced, "We don't need to touch each other, if that freaks you out. Just focus on her. I know she's you're walking fantasy, so let's walk the walk." He searched Kevin's face for signs that his little locker room half time speech had the desired effect, "You wit me, bro?" Javier offered his open palm up.

Kevin nodded, "til the wheels fall off."

He clasped Javi's hand, and they pulled each other in, for a naked chest bro hug, complete with first bumps to the back. Both men pulled away smiling again, Kevin's grin even bigger than Javier's. Even though they both had their own hang-ups, and agendas about this, none of that really mattered compared to the importance of them being right with each other. The rest was just icing, albeit, damn desirable icing.

The pact sealed, Espo's inner smart ass felt it safe to return.

Javi added a sarcastic wink at his air quotes, "Good, nobody I'd rather 'accidentally' rub my dick against." Then he quickly exited, before he could catch any wrath from Kevin.

* * *

Ryan took a moment in the restroom to psyche himself up. Despite Javi's toying with him, he knew he could trust his partner completely in there. He was thinking about Cassandra. In a few short hours, she would be on a plane. Out of his life forever. At least, in this sense.

Watching her movies was gonna seem like a cheap blow up doll date, compared to what they shared tonight. He cringed at the thought of returning to fan sites, and jerking off to her picture. He wanted badly to show her that he would be thinking of her, long after tonight. And not just in the sleazy porn way, or the geeky fan way, or the trophy conquest way. But in the way that she was tonight - generous, fun, insatiable, people-loving, curious, maybe a little odd, but always appreciative and open.

The loud cadence of the headboard banging, cued Ryan to get his bottom into the bedroom. It was showtime.

* * *

Javier Esposito was a monument to the male copulating form. Even Kevin had to appreciate all those muscles working flawlessly in concert to a perfect unbroken rhythm. Certainly, Cassandra appreciated it. She was laying on her back near the top of the bed, while one of her toes wandered upwards to hook itself into the headboard over her. From the sounds of her moaning, Espo was making her very happy.

It wasn't as hard as he thought it would be to just watch. In fact, it was kind of hard to look away. His partner's pumping was constant, and quick, and kept going without a break, only changes in speed. The image just screamed athleticism. Ryan didn't think he could accomplish the task the way Espo was doing it, even if he practiced. It just didn't seem possible for him, although clearly effective.

Espo was trying to give him the sign, I guess he noticed that Ryan was ready, before Ryan did.

* * *

From Cassie's point of view, her long slow train was finally pulling into the station. While she was enjoying herself, and her companions, for most of the night, her mind had always been set on arriving at this moment. She was insatiably curious about this sensation.

'_What would it be like to drink fire and ice at the same time?__'_

Javi was driving her insane with the pace, how did he keep it up for so long, and never miss?

And when would Kevin get here?

She shut her eyes. She wanted to feel them, not direct them. Her senses closed off to anything that wasn't sensation inside her. Easier to do in a dark and quiet room. Easier to do from her back, so they could lead.

All at once, the steady pumping member slipped out, and One Long Thrust pushed in. And again, a long slow withdraw, and an even deeper, more urgent thrust. Her hips curled in the impact, her groin begging for another one, just like that. Patience, the slow, almost complete withdraw. Pay-off, the even deeper, even more urgent thrust reached all the way inside her. _'Of course, this is Ryan.'_ She somehow knew that this was exactly what he would bring to her, now that he was inside her.

Each thrust got a little deeper, Ryan pulled her hips toward him hard, and then harder with each thrust. He almost intended to smash them into one person so that tomorrow's separation would be a moot point.

He lifted her hips off the bed, pulled her up by her buttocks, cupping each desirous cheek in his hands. His thrusts were edging closer together, but so much was happening in her g-spot in between his contact with it, that she wasn't wishing for faster. Her hips high, she pressed into her own skin, above her pubic bone. She pushed the magic spot closer to him, and he slammed harder into it. Tortured breath burst from her, pink sparks flew behind her eyes. _Again!_ her whole body screamed.

As before, with Kevin, her head cleared into the present moment, his entrance making every sensation crisper, and landing deeper inside her. Without the veil of illusion, her only focus was to dissolve inside the pleasure.

With three more impossibly deep thrusts, he was gone, and immediately replaced with the thicker, faster Javier. He kept her hips just as high in the air, appreciating the excellent angle his partner had discovered. But then applied speed. And more speed.

She couldn't catch a decent breath. The pleasurable friction kept strangling it away. Even faster. All the impacts blurred to one. Like hummingbird wings, she couldn't identify his position anymore. He hummed and buzzed inside her like the impossible hummingbird, she could feel the sensation building up to something that would hit her like a ton of bricks, and soon.

She felt wetness dripping down her buttocks, still hoisted high. She couldn't tell if her legs were helping to hold herself up. Everything from her pelvis down was numb from the impossibly tremendous sensations all blurred into one. "Javiiiiiiii!" escaped her lungs, before she knew what she was saying.

With her demise imminent, an altogether electric jolt rammed into her g-spot again. Javier was out, coming on the bed, from the sounds of it. Kevin brought back his long deep thrust, far down deep into everything that felt real in her. The feeling of Javi's vibration was still buzzing through her every molecule, rippling outward through her limbs. And now she could be filled up with the incredibly deep, satisfying feeling of Kevin's muscle. If he would only do it "Again!" before the buzz subsides. "Again! Now, Again!" She was desperate to feel him deep, "Again! Ry-an, pleeeeeeeease!" she implored.

Kevin managed to speed the thrusts up just enough, so he wouldn't lose any depth. The contact with Kevin braided together with the thrumming buzz Javier's signature left behind. The chain reaction exploded up her groin into her navel, traveled up her spine, and blew her head off.

* * *

She couldn't tell if she was floating, being held, or on the bed. Distantly, she heard Kevin's choked cry, as he came too. And her boundless, spinning sensation was gently rocked by the readjusting of bodies on the bed, but she wasn't there.

She was a speck of stardust floating weightlessly through Javier's red radiating universe. And this time, Kevin's ultraviolet filter overlaid the black void of space with brilliant clarity. She zoomed, disembodied, through the interstices of their woven energy, wishing she could pass through an alternate reality, where this visceral connection wouldn't need to end.

The recalibrating sounds of both men's pleasurable sighs, and light panting as they came down, echoed through the stars, but she was a galaxy away. Maybe on that shiny whorehouse planet?

* * *

**Luv to JJ and BS and Selim and Fuel and Ronin and purplangel for the encouragement. **

**Additional props to concreteangel, , Supremelyorange, MLN, and forevercaskett, and the mighty guests who have reviewed this, or my other fledgling efforts. **

**One request, give yourself the cosmic good karma. That review button is just waiting to send you good things, really good things. And I want that for you ;-) **


	10. Chapter 10

**To commemorate the popping of my fanfic cherry, I'm taking the advice of a little birdy, and giving this fic a new nickname, "Make A Wish a Porn a Star." No doubt, the censor will (justifiably) prevent me from changing the name, but you'll know. And, truly, I consider you, the kind souls who have read this far with me, THE most awesome people in fanfic land. A kiss for each of you!**

* * *

Chapter 10:

When Cassie came to, the blue light of dawn was creeping in from the balcony. She never fell asleep after sex, but she could understand why people thought she had drifted off. She was light years from earth, and most likely appeared to be sleeping, or worse, comatose. When she opened her eyes, she was happy to see the slumbering hunks lying on either side of her.

Kevin on her right, his skin awash in pre-dawn light, looked like an angel sleeping. He seemed happy, unfettered, unconfused. Ease, and pure pleasure, graced his sweet features. For once, not a brow crease in sight.

Javier on her left, was nestled in pillows of his own biceps. He looked safe and warm and content. No bad dreams. No one coming to get him. He almost looked like he could be giggling in his sleep. For once, permitted to be playful and foolish without paying the price.

Cassie fervently hoped that both would get to sleep like this for a long while before they awoke.

She dove into both of them, but now it was time to swim out the other side. She got up, covered them with blankets, and went straight to her tasks.

"Delivery for Detectives Ryan and Esposito." The delivery boy could barely be seen behind the two massive bouquets.

"Put 'em over there," Beckett motioned to her co-workers' desks.

Castle's mind raced with curiosity, "Wow, that's some thank you note!"

On Ryan's desk stood a towering four foot bouquet of white chrysanthemum, white camellia, and yellow buttercup. On Esposito's desk stood a similar arrangement of red chrysanthemum, cockscomb, and black-eyed susans.

Both bouquets were littered with white yucca blooms and absinth. Attached to the base of each arrangement was a shoebox-sized gift, wrapped in bright aquamarine gift paper, with a sad single azalea blossom where a bow could have been.

Castle only had about ten minutes of theorizing, and googling the corresponding meanings of flowers, before Detectives Ryan and Esposito strolled into work. Oversized coffees in hand, they both wore uncharacteristic sunglasses inside. It was already 9:30 am.

"Soooooooo, how'd it go?" Castle was sitting in Ryan's chair, staggered between their desks so neither could pass. Their new author teammate looked up at them acquisitively, his eyebrows were perched as high as they could reach. His strumming fingers on Espo's desk, gave the impression of a cat ready to pounce.

"Cool your jets, Castle. Let the detectives get their coats off, before we get our full debriefing." Beckett had their back. Good ole' Beckett.

"I'm sure the boys were just as _**thorough**_ in their interrogation of Ms. Stone as they assured us they would be." Beckett double entendre-d**. **Dammit! No good ole' Beckett. They were screwed.

Luckily, Cassandra had gone to the trouble of typing up her statement, and collecting one from Jaqui, Kimmi and the rest of her girls. She thoughtfully left triplicate copies of the notarized documents in envelopes on the pillow next to the sleeping detectives. So, no verbal debriefing would be necessary. Kevin produced the envelopes from his inside jacket pocket and handed over a copy each to Beckett and Castle, their would-be interrogators. One bullet dodged.

But now what was all this? Towering floral bouquets? Not terribly subtle. But really, how could they be mad at her? In fact, they were having difficulty being upset about anything. Even their hangovers and sleep deprivation headaches seemed just peachy, in the grand scheme of things.

"Well, are you gonna open it?" Castle was damn near bursting to see what was inside those boxes.

"Nope," Kevin chirped.

"Naw," Javier shook his head.

The two non-interested gentlemen strode into the break room to top up their coffees, leaving Castle to stew in his near cat-killing curiosity. Poor Beckett had to put up with Rick veritably clawing at the furniture all morning, when neither detective would spill.

* * *

Finally, when the co-ed mind-reading duo left for lunch, Ryan and Espo rushed back to their desks to tear into their gifts.

Javi attacked his, throwing shreds of gift wrap over his shoulder. Inside he found a 10 inch Lamborghini 1:18 full scale model car. Its exterior paint in authentic Arancio Ishtar red was detailed with his name, "Javi," in flames down the side of the car. When he tested the working doors and opened the trunk, he found a thumb drive stashed inside, labeled "your eyes only." Espo quickly stuffed the drive in his shirt pocket before anyone saw, he hoped.

Ryan slid two fingers under the fold of the paper seam to release the scotch tape from it's hold on the box. When he carefully lifted the lid, he uncovered a ratty binder with the words "Trapper Keeper" embossed across the flap on the front cover. It looked to be a vintage around 1983, decorated in a saccharine array of rainbows, hearts and unicorns.

Confused, he pulled open the Velcro to reveal a Chemistry workbook and spiral notepad attached by three plastic rings to the spine. Kevin looked over his shoulder before he flipped through some of the pages. Page after page held the telltale loopy cursive of a twitterpated teenage girl. The first page read "Mrs. Kevin Ryan" written in about a dozen different ways with hearts and stars and Bunsen burners doodled all around it.

When he flipped through the pad to get an idea of just how many pages were filled this way, his attention snagged on sketches of sea turtles, a Ferris wheel, and an elaborate thanksgiving feast. But when Ryan came across a bare chested figure wearing a black bow tie, who was winking suggestively at him, he shut the note pad quickly and glanced around with discomfort.

In one of the numerous mesh pockets of the outside binder, Ryan noticed a flash drive labeled "your eyes only." He quickly stuffed that into his inside jacket pocket, and hastily shoved the binder back into the box.

"Espo, I can't let Castle or Beckett see mine. I'm headed home for lunch."

"Right behind you, bro. Castle would break this thing inside of an hour. No way he could keep his paws off it."

Both men were too caught up in their own prizes, and the mystery inside, to even inquire about the other's gift. With the urgency of running backs advancing the football from the line of scrimmage, they headed for the door, boxes cradled tightly in the crooks of their arms.

* * *

Javier locked his apartment door behind him and made a B-line for his laptop, plugged in the drive, and pulled up a chair. His right knee bounced impatiently as he waited for the file to open.

Kevin, at his own apartment, was about the very same business.

On both screens a video file began to load. Cassie's smiling face appeared, but she didn't speak, only the soft buffeting of wind on the microphone could be heard. She was holding a camera, walking around the balcony, taking a pan of the sunrise view and New York before it woke up. It was gorgeous, even with the slight tremble of the handheld recording.

Then she crossed into the atrium, revealing it's swank interior to Javier for the first time, while sending a shiver of recognition up Kevin's spine. She kept walking past the salty water, the lounge, and the pool table, picking up pieces of stray clothing as she came across them. When she exited the rear of the atrium, she circled round the flag pole, into the kitchen, where playing cards still swirled over the table. Next, she moved on to the bedroom suite, and into the bathroom. The actress panned to soaking wet pink socks on the floor, and hung them over the curtain rod to dry.

At last, she emerged to survey the bedroom from door and love seat on her left, across the bed to the fireplace and mini bar on her right. She crawled up to the bed and laid back down between the sound asleep Javier and Kevin. With her selfie-cam, she smiled and kissed Javi on the forehead ever so lightly. Then she turned to Kevin, brushed his hair back from his face, and kissed him on the cheek. Finally, she blew two kisses into the camera and turned it off.

Ryan's cell phone rang, "Yo, you watchin' what I'm watching?"

"Yep, tour of the suite, and our good night kisses?"

"Can you believe this, bro? This girl is unreal."

"Ughhh, Javi, do you have another video on yours?"

"What?" In a few seconds, Espo watched another file automatically begin to load. This video image was green and grainy, like a security feed. What was it? Esposito tilted his head trying to arrange the shapes into a meaningful picture. When human figures raced across the camera's line of sight, it dawned on him_…__**the balcony!**_

"Oh shit!" Javier yelled into the phone when he recognized his naked ass getting tied up on a familiar pole.

Kevin asked tightly, "Javi, are you watching the Atrium?" his stomach flipping in knots. The thought of Esposito's eyes on the sanctum of his role play with Cassie and their first union, was terrifying. Not because he feared ridicule, although certainly his partner would have had a field day with that, but because he worried that the magic gust of wind that had filled his sails during it, would be deflated, if the secret were violated. He was just praying his fears were unfounded.

"Naw, dude, mine's the balcony and the pole."

"Okay, good." With Espo's negation, Ryan's blood pressure dropped nearly twenty points. He was watching an actual sex tape, not a grainy security feed. It started from about the time Jax left the atrium. _'Sneaky whispering women up to no good.' _

The image of Ryan in his towel, and then most definitely _**not**_ in his towel, as he climbed over Cassandra's body, included way more detail than his fantasy life had previously called for. He was in the habit of painting out the details of her body, her expressions, their conversation, the scene around them, even the smells and tastes, but it never included this much detail about his own backside.

Honestly, he had no idea that the muscles in his ass needed to contract that way in order to thrust. And he certainly had no reason to dwell on the awkward tilting angle of his pelvis in missionary position. His overanalyzing mind raced to compare it with what he had seen Javier doing this morning, which seemed like a wholesale different approach.

Espo's voice interrupted Kevin's thoughts of his partner's naked form, "I'll call you back, bro!"

Startled, Kevin shook out a, " Ah, Sure. Right." He was so engrossed, he forgot that the phone was still hanging on his ear, let alone that Esposito was on the other end of it. In fact, he had trouble ripping his eyes away from the screen to find the button that would disconnect the call.

Both men watched in utter fascination their own starring roles in their first ever porno's, at once hypercritical, and overly in love with, their own performances.

Just as the video feed showed Cassie settling back into Javi's lap on the lounge chair, Espo's phone buzzed on the desktop. Relief washed over Javier when he realized that Kevin decided to text back, instead of calling, considering the level of arousal and vulnerability the video had enkindled. Shakily, he took his phone in hand. Of course, _she_ was hot, but watching himself be so exposed proved a little unnerving.

Text from Ryan: "There's another video. You've probably got it too."

On Javi's computer screen flashed some diffuse light, but no image. He heard a scream. _'Uh oh.'_ Then something wiped the lens clean, and he could clearly see the familiar shower.

Text from Javier: "Damn, I am huge in the morning. Sorry Bro."

Text from Ryan: "Hey 'accidents' happen, right?"

Kevin was so happy to have regained enough control of himself to joke with Javier about what _could_ have become a serious kink in the smooth ebb and flow of their relationship. They were in uncharted territory, and he realized now that it had the potential to shipwreck everything between them. It didn't occur to Ryan, until just this moment, that he would have been devastated if things had gone differently, if the playing and nakedness had somehow morphed into awkward regret, in the light of day. He thanked his lucky stars, and mainly Cassie, that both men seemed to walk into the precinct today with more trust, not less, than they had left with the night before.

Text from Ryan: "There's more."

Text from Javier: "I see it."

Text from Ryan: "Damn, you athletic, bro. Well done."

When he read this text, in response to the scene in the bedroom, Esposito felt a knot of tension over his chest untie itself. Kevin was okay. They were still square with each other. He had gathered that his partner still enjoyed himself with Cassie, even with his presence. But Ryan had taken Espo's advice, and focused solely on Stone. He barely made eye contact with Javi, during the whole exercise. And when he did meet Espo's gaze briefly, to acknowledge he was ready, Ryan's face was an imperforate picture of concentration. Nothing in his eyes was for his partner.

At the time, Espo tried to tell himself this was because Kevin was nervous and feeling awkward, and not to take it personally. But truth be told, Javier had really craved a moment of reassurance during the event. Nothing too much, nothing to imply gloating, or gaping at the implausible scenario, he just wished Ryan could have given him the slightest wink, to affirm that they were in it together. That he wasn't losing Kevin to doubt or fear.

The price of playing tough guy was that other men rarely knew when he needed a boost - and he _couldn't_ dare to break down and ask.

When Javi had nudged Kev awake, all seemed well. They did their best to pull themselves together and get to the precinct in record time, only stopping for clean clothes and coffee on the way. In fact, Ryan's permagrin was damn near unstoppable, even when the horizontal morning light through the windshield forced both of them to dig out their sunglasses. Ryan even commented that the sun at 9 am was 'beautiful' on the street. With puerile candor, Ryan lamented that usually this hour would see them knee deep in casework, or canvassing near a crime scene. Breathily he lamented, "What a pity we miss it, everyday."

At any other time, his young partner's guileless appreciation would have drawn a raised eyebrow, or worse mockery, from Esposito. But today, Espo was busy riding his own high of self-righteous egotism throughout the morning, as he replayed in his mind Cassie's voice singing "Javiiiiiiii" in the throes of passion.

But Kevin's vocal appreciation had been impersonal, almost ecumenical, in its extension to all of God's green earth. He still hadn't exchanged a single word or look with Javier, that registered the magnitude of what last night meant for their relationship going forward, good or bad.

But this text exchange had confirmed, without a doubt, that the bromance was still on. He and Ryan would only be tighter after last night. With the news, Javier's high intensified. He scrutinized the bedroom action on the video with a new fierce enthusiasm. When he watched himself tag Kevin in the first time, none of his imagined fears were in evidence, only lust, and maybe more passion than he had noticed the first time around.

Javier suddenly felt a surge of uncontainable incredulity over their collective machismo. Did they really just pull last night's caper off, without a hitch, from beginning to end? Was that _really_ him and his partner on screen? With _**the**_ Cassandra, no _'Cassie,'_ Stone? He shot out of his seat, and lapped the room in big bouncing steps, just to release some of the surplus energy coursing through him, before coming back to plop in front of the computer, and take in more.

Text from Javier: "Damn, you sexy, bro. She's gonna watch this shit every night for the rest of her natural life."

Ryan didn't reply since this was the moment, nothing was more important than reliving Cassie's soprano-like sounds, and the curl of her pelvis, and slam of his hips, as they both crescendoed toward orgasm. A few moments later, Espo poked again.

Text from Javier: "Now, how 'bout that 2 weeks of paperwork you owe me?"

A long moment passed while Kevin parsed out his reply. Espo flitted around his apartment distracted by the excess power surging through him, absently pretending that he was ready to get some actual lunch before returning to work, as if he could focus on something so mundane and sequential right now. He opened and closed the refrigerator door at least three times, but none of its contents registered in his mind.

Finally, Espo's pocket buzzed, giving him permission to give up the charade of productivity.

Text from Ryan: "Dear Mr. Esposito, after reviewing the instant replay, the refs have declared this match a draw. Better luck next time. Sincerely, The Entourage"

Text from Javier: "Next time, huh? Alright, you're on, bro."

* * *

**Credit to the excellent authors, and highly amusing personalities, that have welcomed me to fanfic and helped me get this story out: Twisha, The Black Sluggard, SelimPensFiction, JamieSpencer4, purplangel, GeekMom, FuelDH206, Starships and Stopwatches, Detective Mexy, RoninBlackwing, Supremelyorange, forevercaskett41319, Hulihana, Dmarx, mari25225, SilverArtemisKO, concreteangel16, myboygeorge, and the extraordinary Ms. Scarlett.**

**Thank you!**

And thank _**you**_ for reviewing…


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